WHAT DOES THE UNITED NATIONS THINK ABOUT CUBA?

It has long been clear that international law protects the domestic affairs of states and their independence and sovereignty. On 21 December 1965 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 'Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of their Independence and Sovereignty'. The principle was ratified in the 1970 declaration on Principles of International Law. In addition, on 9 December 1981 the General Assembly adopted by 120 votes to 22 (all Western states), with 6 abstentions, Resolution 36/103, the 'Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States'.

On 24 December 1992 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 47/19 (Appendix 3) by 59 votes to 3 (United States, Israel and Rumania), with many abstentions, calling for an end to the 'economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the USA against Cuba'.
On 16 September the European Parliament passed a resolution urging the Commission to condemn the US policy on Cuba. It also called on Washington to repeal the Cuba Democracy Act denouncing this legislation as an 'anachronism' and 'contrary to international law'.

The historic UN Resolution 47/19 was buttressed a year later when the General Assembly passed Resolution 48/16 93 November 1993), condemning yet again the US economic blockade, and by the passing, a year after that, of Resolution 49/24 (24 October 1994), reaffirming the two earlier resolutions.

The position of the broadly-based UN community was plain: the votes in the general Assembly, the public speeches, the resolutions and declarations, the views of the various UN organs and bodies (UNCHS, UNICEF, UNPF, WPF, WHO and others) - all testifying to Washington's growing international isolation on the Cuban issue. But in mid-1995 all the signs were that the US embargo, involving illegality and the gross abuse of human rights, was set to continue.

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