Geneva, August 6, 2026.- Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts of the UN Human Rights Council issued a strong statement today condemning the United States’ measures against Cuba, denouncing them as an attempt to alter the constitutional order of a sovereign state through threats and coercion.
In this context, they urged the international community and civil society to act swiftly to prevent the establishment of a “silent Gaza” on the Island.
They emphasized that, as a result of the increasingly hostile actions of the United States, energy, transportation, irrigation, and basic services are failing simultaneously, disproportionately affecting women, children, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups.
“Measures that knowingly deprive a population of the means to survive strike at the most basic guarantees of the rights to life and diminish the core of human dignity,” the experts declared.
They also denounced the report published by the U.S. State Department on July 20, which describes Cuba as a supposed threat to U.S. national security and hemispheric stability, without presenting any concrete evidence that Cuba supports terrorism or subversive activities.
They stressed that the United States’ unilateral and illegal coercive measures against Cuba contravene Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and are part of a broader regime change strategy, which includes the decades-long blockade imposed on Cuba.
“The U.S. government must cease all threats and hostile acts against Cuba’s sovereignty and revoke all measures it has imposed on the country. The Security Council and General Assembly should urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security,” they emphasized.
The declaration was signed by George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Zaina Jallad, Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights; Sofía Monsalve Suárez, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Shalmali Guttal (Chair), Carlos Duarte, Davit Hakobyan, Uche Ofodile, and Geneviève Savigny, members of the Working Group on Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas; and Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development.
Since February 2026, more than a dozen mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and the Deputy High Commissioner, Awa Dabo, have issued nine public statements condemning the intensification of the blockade and the hostility of the United States against Cuba.
(Cubaminrex-CubanMission to Geneva)