UN General Assembly Takes Up Cuba’s Call to End US Embargo

The UN General Assembly took up the United States economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba at a plenary meeting in New York on Tuesday, October 27. The meeting of the Assembly’s eighty-first session listed Cuba’s draft resolution alongside a report from the Secretary-General on implementation of the previous resolution on the issue. Cuba’s draft, circulated on October 5, urges states applying the measures to “take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible”. It also calls on states to refrain from introducing or applying such laws and measures, citing obligations under the UN Charter and international law, including freedom of trade and navigation. These are requests in the proposed text, rather than an adopted decision. The proposal specifically names the Helms-Burton Act of March 12, 1996, and expresses concern about the extraterritorial effects of such measures on other states, entities and individuals. It recalls the Assembly’s resolutions on the embargo from November 24, 1992, through the most recent resolution, adopted on October 29, 2025. The Secretary-General’s report, dated July 20, 2026, reproduces replies from governments, UN bodies and agencies, and invited observer entities about implementation of that previous resolution. Cuba’s draft requests a further implementation report for the Assembly’s eighty-second session and proposes retaining the embargo issue on that session’s provisional agenda.