New York, 21 November 2019. Today, the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly took action on the draft resolution entitled: “Unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries,” submitted by the State of Palestine on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
The text, which recognizes that unilateral coercive economic measures are a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, was adopted by 116 votes in favor, 2 (USA and Israel) against and 52 abstentions.
Since its thirty-eighth session, the UN General Assembly has examined this draft resolution traditionally submitted by the Group of 77; and this has been the twenty-first time that the Second Committee has considered this item on its agenda.
During the process of adopting the resolution, several delegations as Cuba, DPRK, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, Iran, Zimbabwe and China, made statements rejecting the imposition of unilateral coercive economic measures, highlighting their extraterritorial effects, their negative impact on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the economic and social development of the affected countries and peoples, reiterating the urgent need for their immediate elimination.
The resolution adopted establishes that no State may use or encourage the use of unilateral economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights; it urges the international community to condemn and reject the imposition of such measures, and calls for urgent and effective measures to prevent their use.
Likewise, it states that the use of unilateral coercive economic measures harms in particular the economies of developing countries and their development efforts and has negative effects on international economic cooperation and on efforts worldwide to establish a non-discriminatory and open multilateral trading system.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations