APG and Common Frontiers denounce Canada’s abstention on urgent UN vote on Cuba
Image Credit: Harmeet Rehal
Americas Policy Group and Common Frontiers, two national multi-sectoral coalitions of labour, environmental, faith-based and civil society and social justice organizations, strongly denounce Canada’s abstention at the July 7th United Nations vote on Cuba.
On July 7th, 136 nations voted at the United Nations General Assembly to support a special session debate on "the United States’ decades-long economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba,” adopting an urgent proposal to re-open debate amid the “unprecedented actions of an extreme extraterritorial nature being undertaken against the island nation” by the United States of America. Canada was one of 30 nations to abstain from the vote. Nine countries voted against it.
Cuba faces a dire humanitarian crisis and heightened threats from the United States to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Our member organizations' Cuban partners tell us that the deepening US sanctions are leading to the slow, preventable, and inhumane death of the Cuban people. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, “[t]he fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and recent tightening of extraterritorial sanctions, taken together, are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable. Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines”. On May 7, UN experts asserted that the U.S. fuel blockade on Cuba “amounts to ‘energy starvation’ with grave consequences for human rights and the country’s overall development.”
The decades-long economic, commercial, and financial embargo against Cuba has caused massive economic and social hardship on the Cuban people and violates UN charter principles. United Nations experts have called the U.S. government’s January 29 executive order, which imposed a fuel blockade on Cuba, “a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.” As unilateral coercive measures, they violate core principles of the UN Charter, including “the principles of sovereign equality, non-intervention and self-determination.” The UN Charter clearly stipulates that all members of the United Nations shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The Americas Policy Group and Common Frontiers, two Canadian coalitions with dozens of member organizations, firmly denounce Canada’s failure to support the UN special debate on Cuba at this critical juncture for Cubans. Between 1993 and 2025, Canada has consistently voted in favour of Cuba’s annual resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, including at the most recent October, 2025 session. On its own website, Canada states that its opposition to the embargo is “based on principles of international law” and that the embargo “continues to be a barrier for Canadian companies wishing to do legitimate business with Cuba.” It is deeply disturbing that Canada chose to abstain from such a vital vote.
We urge the Government of Canada to assert its sovereign foreign policy on Cuba and declare to Canadians and to the international community that it opposes the fuel blockade and extraterritorial sanctions against Cuba, and to call for the respect of Cuban sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the full spectrum of human rights in Cuba.