NEW YORK – Kenya on Thursday voted to support a UN resolution to end US embargo on Cuba, maintaining a 31-year position on the matter.
Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Martin Kimani termed the embargo as long running and punishing. The economic and trade embargo was first imposed in 1960.
In the UNGA proceedings on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial embargo against Cuba, Kenya’s Deputy Permanent Representative Amb Njambi Kinyungu reaffirmed Kenya’s alignment with the views from African States, the Group of 77 and China, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Amb Kinyungu added that the embargo on Cuba has been a longstanding contradiction of foundational principles of the United Nations.
“Kenya firmly stands with Cuba as we have done in the preceding years and decades. It is why we will always vote in favour of this resolution, while always hoping each vote is the last due to the eventual lifting of the embargo,” Amb Kinyungu said.
UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the resolution with 187 votes in favour, the US and Israel voting against and Ukraine abstaining.
Kinyungu noted that while the Charter emphasizes the rights of sovereignty and non-interference and enshrines collective will towards development and prosperity, Cuba continues to bear the brunt of the “double standards that degrade the trust we so direly need in each other”.
“The embargo is part of an unfortunate broader sanctions phenomenon that punishes civilians in indiscriminate fashion, and increases the fragility of targeted countries to manmade and natural shocks. It is also reshaping the global economy in a manner that kicks down the ladder to prosperity that the wealthiest countries touted when cheering globalization,” Kinyungu said.
Instead of embargoes, exclusion, and punitive measures, she said the people of such close neighbors would greatly benefit from open exchanges of ideas, goods, and services.
“Such mutual exchanges lay the groundwork for lasting ties that are vital to a United Nations that seeks to cultivate peace and prosperity for all,” she added.
The Assembly voiced concern that despite its resolutions dating back to 1992 (Resolution 47/19), “the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba is still in place”, and that “the adverse effects of such measures on the Cuban people and on Cuban nationals living in other countries”.
The General Assembly reiterated its call for all States to refrain from promulgating and applying such restrictive laws and measures, in line with their obligations under the UN Charter and international law.
