By Nelson Acosta
HAVANA (Reuters) -A United Nations human rights expert on Friday urged the United States to lift sanctions imposed on Cuba, citing the impact of long-standing trade and financial restrictions on everything from the island’s educational system to food security and healthcare.
Alena Douhan, a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, said U.S. sanctions against Cuba “do not conform to a broad number of international legal norms.”
The so-called trade embargo, or blockade, she said, “have been substantially exacerbating the humanitarian situation in Cuba… and have been designed to prevent Cuba from receiving any economic revenue, especially in hard currency.”
Her comments in Havana on Friday echoed those of a majority of member nations of the United Nations, which last month overwhelmingly called for an end to a U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.
The United Nations vote carries global political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo.
The United States has long argued that Cuba’s communist-run government has brought its economic woes upon itself, and alleges Cuba uses the trade embargo to deflect blame for its failings and “incompetence.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Douhan, who has been visiting the island since last week, told reporters she had met with a cross-section of Cuba’s public and private sectors to assess the embargo’s impacts.
Her visit coincides with an acute economic crisis that has drained public coffers, devastated tourism and led to severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine that have sparked a record-breaking exodus from the island.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified sanctions against its longtime foe, returning Cuba to a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightening rules on remittances, and shutting off Biden-era migration programs.
(Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Dave Sherwood and Bill Berkrot)
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