DECLARATION OF THE 21ST CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM AGAINST THE BLOCKADE, HELD AROUND THE THEME “THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, AND TECHNOLOGICAL BLOCKADE IMPOSED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AGAINST CUBA, ON ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER ACTORS OF CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY”
The civil society organizations, movements, networks, and social actors participating in the 21st Cuban Civil Society Forum Against the Blockade, convened around this topic, are deeply dismayed, sensitized, and moved by the experiences and experiences, many of them heartbreaking, presented at our Forum, in the spheres related to food production, health, and people with disabilities.
1) We denounce the harmful effects of the blockade on the fulfillment of the goals, objectives, and activities of Cuban civil society organizations and other actors linked to areas of great impact on the Cuban population, as well as on their support for the implementation of public policies related to these sectors.
2) We reaffirm our denunciation that the blockade constitutes a massive, flagrant, and systematic violation of all human rights of the entire Cuban population, including their right to life, food, the highest attainable standard of health, and the right to live without poverty and discrimination, as recognized by experts from the Human Rights Council in a letter sent to the US administration last year, who described the blockade as “a serious violation of international law.”
3) We reiterate that the blockade undermines the implementation of public policies adopted by the government in the food and health sectors, as well as those aimed at achieving greater social inclusion. Furthermore, it significantly hinders actions and efforts to achieve the country’s sustainable development, while also undermining the alliances and actions promoted by various actors aimed at contributing to the achievement of a sustainable nation.
4) We denounce that the damage caused to the Cuban nation over more than six decades of this illegal and cruel policy amounts to $170,677.2 million, significantly affecting the State’s actions and policies to guarantee the population’s right to food and health and achieve a more just, inclusive, and equitable society.
5) We denounce that the blockade limits the country’s productive capacities; significantly affects the acquisition of implements and technologies for food production; undermines the stability of the productive forces of the agri-food sector, while violating the letter and spirit of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP).
6) We condemn the predatory effect of the blockade on the actions carried out by the State to achieve the objectives of the Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutrition Security Law, in whose design, implementation, and oversight various Cuban civil society organizations play a prominent role.
7) We note with regret that the limitations on scientific cooperation in the field of food technology negatively impact the health of the population, and in particular, that of people with special nutritional needs.
8) We reaffirm that the blockade constitutes the main obstacle to the implementation of the 2030 Economic and Social Development Plan, and, therefore, to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of its Sustainable Development Goals;
9) We reiterate our firm conviction that the blockade substantially limits Cuba’s right to development and violates the Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, which recognize the Right to Development as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights.
10. We denounce that the blockade violates the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); it impedes their full autonomy and inclusion; it limits their interaction and access to innovative technologies; it deprives them of universal knowledge, medicines, and assistive technologies; it essentially undermines the efforts made by the State and civil society organizations of persons with disabilities to achieve their full inclusion.
11. We firmly condemn the harmful effects of the blockade on the realization of the Cuban population’s right to health by substantially limiting access to equipment, technologies, supplies, and medicines; Scientific exchanges, all of which unfortunately increase morbidity and even cause the death of our fellow citizens, including children.
12. We are proud of the supportive cooperation of members of our scientific health societies, which have contributed to the realization of the right to health for millions of people in developing countries. We reject the unfounded and disrespectful campaign by the U.S. government to consider this medical cooperation as human trafficking, with the doubly criminal objective of reducing the income resulting from such collaboration, which is entirely destined for the Cuban health system.
13. We reject and denounce the negative effects of the blockade on scientific exchange between Cuban and U.S. organizations, with negative effects on the populations of both countries.
14. We denounce that the blockade impedes and/or slows down cooperation with Cuba by agencies, funds, and programs of the United Nations system, international non-governmental organizations, and other actors interested in supporting the country’s economic and social development. We reiterate our deep gratitude to these multiple actors, as well as our satisfaction at being, in many cases, their partners in cooperation.
15. We condemn the policy of maximum pressure and suffocation applied by the Trump Administration against our country, which has a devastating effect on all spheres of Cuban society. We reject the re-inclusion of Cuba on the illegal, unfounded, unilateral, and immoral List of States Sponsors of Terrorism, which exacerbates the negative effects of this genocidal policy, and we demand that Cuba be removed from this legal absurdity.
16. We denounce once again that the blockade violates the civil and political rights of the Cuban population, as it pursues the objective of changing the political, economic, and social system that Cubans have freely decided upon, in the full exercise of our self-determination. We reject all actions aimed at undermining the Cuban people’s determination to build a socialist, prosperous, sustainable, independent, and sovereign homeland.
17. We denounce and reject the campaign of pressure, lies, and blackmail deployed by the U.S. State Department toward third countries, with the aim of trying to undermine the almost unanimous support enjoyed by the Cuban resolution.
18. We demand the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the Caribbean, in flagrant violation of the Purposes and Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations; we reiterate our support for the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and demand respect for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in which many members of Cuban civil society have cooperated.
19. We reiterate our firm support for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and demand an end to Israeli genocide and ethnocide in Palestinian territory.
20. We reiterate our gratitude to the international solidarity movements that support Cuban civil society and the entire nation in this just demand. We invite the promoters and defenders of all human rights for all, of public international law, and of international humanitarian law, to continue joining us in this battle to defend the fundamental human right of the Cuban people: our right to life.
21. We support the presentation, on the 28th and 29th of this month, during the current 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, of the draft resolution “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” and we ask the member states of the Organization to support it, as an unequivocal demonstration of their commitment to justice, peace, and international law.
Havana, October 25, 2025
