UN Rights Experts Warn of ‘Silent Gaza’ in Cuba
United Nations human-rights experts have condemned the latest United States measures against Cuba, warning that the island is moving towards a humanitarian disaster that could unfold largely outside the world’s attention.
The statement released by the experts on Thursday in Geneva highlighted the need for prompt action to avoid what they have called a “silent Gaza,” which might be established in Cuba. This term is used for a scenario that does not arise due to continuous shelling but due to the gradual deprivation of essential requirements such as fuel, food, medicines, electricity, water, and others. The experts explained that the results of the American policy of pressures against Cuba were already evident in its health care, food distribution, transport, and public utility sectors.
“Food must never be used as an instrument of political pressure. Measures that knowingly deprive a population of the means to survive strike at the most basic guarantees of the rights to life and diminish the core of human dignity,”
the UN human-rights experts said.
Their statement was not issued by the UN Security Council or the General Assembly. It came from independent experts appointed through the UN human-rights system. Their conclusions are not binding court judgments, but they carry considerable authority in international human-rights debates and reflect a long-running UN concern over the humanitarian effects of the US embargo on Cuba.
Pressure campaign intensifies
Washington’s new policy is one of many actions by the US intended to disrupt Cuba’s access to foreign currencies, energy sources, investments, and financial dealings. The Trump administration had launched an executive order regarding fuel supply in January, and it has essentially raised the bar for the nations and firms supplying fuel to Cuba. The experts from the UN subsequently labeled the policy as “energy starvation,” since the lack of fuel has been hampering Cuba’s essential services and its growth as an economy. In May, the White House issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the persons and firms involved in the Cuban government and related fields such as energy, finances, defense, mining, and security.
The United States then imposed sanctions on Unión Cuba-Petróleo, Cuba’s state-owned oil company, further complicating the island’s ability to obtain petroleum products. The measure was particularly significant because Cuba relies heavily on imported fuel to generate electricity, operate water-pumping stations, distribute food and maintain public transport.
In July, the sanctions list was extended to include Cuban state-owned entities and other groups identified by the State Department as providing financial assistance to the government and running its intelligence and surveillance system. The move was justified by the US as a step in its broader attempt to stop the so-called “malign activities” of the Cuban regime in Cuba and throughout the Western Hemisphere. It is stated that the sanctions do not target ordinary Cubans but aim at the Cuban government, military-affiliated companies, government officials and other entities accused of corruption and human rights violations. However, the UN experts note that the impact of sanctions is difficult to separate from the civilian population when the listed institutions manage fuel imports, electricity generation, medical services, transport and food supply.
Humanitarian crisis deepens
The warning comes amid reports of severe shortages across the island. UN agencies have said that hospitals are postponing operations, medical workers are struggling to obtain essential medicines and electricity disruptions are interfering with the treatment of vulnerable patients.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in June that children were dying because doctors could not access essential medicines and medical supplies. He called for the immediate lifting of the US measures, arguing that the restrictions were producing widespread harm among the most vulnerable sections of Cuban society.
“The fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and recent tightening of extraterritorial sanctions, taken together, are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable,”
Volker Türk said.
Turk further said that the situation is completely unacceptable, since children are being killed as the health care professionals struggle to provide them with basic medication. Turk’s actions constituted one of the most serious criticisms by the UN official towards US policy since the new fuel regulations have come into effect(news). The numbers that have been reported reflect the severity of the situation. Infant mortality rates in Cuba have increased to nearly 9.9 deaths per 1,000 births, which according to reports made by the UN, is almost double of the previous rate. Survival rates among childhood cancers have decreased from 85% to 65%, whereas the lack of fuel and medicine has hampered treatment, surgery, and emergency services. Cuba’s energy shortage has even affected the supply of clean drinking water in Cuba. This is because pumping of water requires fuel and electricity, which means that fuel shortage can immediately become an emergency in terms of public health. It has been reported that one million people had to depend on delivery of water, and in some cases, power cuts lasted for over 20 hours a day.
Hospitals have faced a backlog of more than 96,000 pending surgeries, including about 11,000 involving children. Electricity shortages have forced medical facilities to suspend or delay operations, while disruptions to refrigeration threaten medicines, vaccines and food supplies.
The UN humanitarian response has sought to support approximately two million people, or about one-fifth of Cuba’s population. However, the appeal has faced a substantial funding shortage. Of a reported $94 million requirement, only $26 million had been secured, leaving a gap of $68 million.
These figures describe a crisis in which one shortage reinforces another. Without fuel, electricity generation is reduced. Without electricity, hospitals, water systems and food storage are disrupted. Without transport, medical supplies and humanitarian cargo cannot reach communities. The result is a chain of failures that can turn economic sanctions into direct risks to civilian life.
Havana blames US economic warfare
The Cuban authorities have regularly criticized Washington for using the sanctions in order to cause the economic crisis and political instability in Cuba. According to the Cuban authorities, the policy of the United States is not an embargo but a series of sanctions that prevents Cuba from obtaining fuel, investments, financing and technology. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has called the new sanctions “collective punishment” and charged the United States with the intention to create humanitarian disaster. The Cuban authorities claim that the sanctions impact even those humanitarian actions that have exemptions in terms of food and medicines. Non-US banks, shipping companies, insurance agencies and suppliers may refuse cooperation with Cuba because of the secondary sanctions.
Cuba has also said that fuel shortages have delayed the delivery of humanitarian assistance. According to reports, more than 2,900 metric tonnes of humanitarian food cargo were affected by shipping and logistical restrictions, while UN aid worth approximately $6.3 million was delayed or held up.
The Cuban government argues that these consequences demonstrate the difference between formal exemptions and practical access. A medicine may be legally permitted for export, Havana says, but still fail to reach Cuba if the bank will not process the payment, the insurer will not cover the shipment or the shipping company fears enforcement action.
That argument is central to the UN experts’ criticism. They have urged countries not to validate or implement extraterritorial US restrictions and called on Washington to withdraw measures that they say interfere with Cuba’s sovereignty and constitutional order.
Washington defends its policy
The United States rejects the charge that its Cuba policy is designed to starve civilians. Washington says the sanctions are intended to reduce revenue available to the Cuban government, military-linked companies and security agencies accused of suppressing dissent.
As described in the executive order of the White House, Cuba’s policies are perceived as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy” of the United States. These sanctions include freezing of assets, financial penalties and other sanctions against the entities and individuals who are seen as assisting the Cuban regime.
The State Department also has asserted that such sanctions are necessary to put pressure on the Cuban regime to release its political prisoners, stop their repressions and initiate any reforms, both economic and political. The US authorities claim that Cuba’s economic system controlled by the state, corruption and restriction of private enterprise as well as its human rights situation are the key reasons behind the economic and political problems of the country. This stance was reaffirmed when UN human rights chief pointed out that the sanctions caused serious damage to Cuba.
The US also points to humanitarian exemptions in its sanctions system. American officials maintain that food, medicine and certain communications and humanitarian transactions can be authorised, provided they do not benefit the Cuban government or sanctioned entities.
The dispute, however, is not simply about whether exemptions exist on paper. It concerns whether those exemptions work in practice. UN officials and humanitarian organisations say that the broader sanctions environment has made financial institutions and international companies unwilling to handle Cuba-related transactions, even when those transactions might be lawful.
Cuba begins economic reforms
While denouncing US pressure, the Cuban government has also begun implementing its most extensive economic reforms since the 1959 revolution.
The National Assembly approved a package of 176 measures intended to expand private-sector activity, attract foreign capital and give businesses greater access to land, imports, fuel and finance. The reforms include easing land-use restrictions, allowing private companies to participate in wholesale fuel distribution and opening selected areas of the economy to foreign investment.
Cuban officials say nearly 200 businesses have been authorised to participate in wholesale fuel distribution. Havana has also approved a foreign-investment venture to import and sell fuel, a significant change for an economy historically dominated by state institutions.
The reforms can be seen both as a response to economic problems within the country as well as an effort to show the US that Cuba can reform itself without giving up on its own political system. President Miguel Díaz-Canel says he does not see the reforms as a transition to “predatory capitalism” or privatisation on a mass scale.
The policy poses a tough paradox for the Cuban government: it needs to protect state dominance in key industries at the same time as it depends more and more on private companies and foreign investment for fuel, food, medicine, and capital. While the reforms could help alleviate shortages, they are happening during an urgent situation of energy and humanitarian crisis for the country. Cuba’s economy declined by about 5 percent in 2025, according to an official Cuban economics research centre, with a total decline of more than 15 per cent from 2020 onwards.
International opposition to the embargo
This UN alert is but one aspect of the international controversy about the US embargo policy. Although these resolutions are non-binding, the UN General Assembly has been demanding the lifting of this embargo time and again. In October 2025, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on the need to end the US economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed on Cuba through 165 votes to seven, and twelve abstentions. This was in contrast to the previous year’s vote count of 187 votes to two.
The reduction in the number of votes for this resolution reflects US diplomatic pressure exerted on others. However, this continues to prove that the US is diplomatically isolated on this issue. The US claims that votes in the UN General Assembly do not address the human rights violations and political prisoners in Cuba. On the other hand, Cuba and its allies claim that human rights violations should not be considered as an excuse to inflict widespread hardship on an entire nation.
That tension lies at the centre of the current controversy. The US says economic pressure is needed to promote freedom and accountability. The UN experts say the policy is undermining the very rights it claims to defend.
