The UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for the 15th time in a row to demand an end to the four-decade-old US trade embargo against communist-ruled Cuba.
By a vote of 183 in favour, four against and one abstention, the 192-member assembly decided to include on the provisional agenda of its next session an item entitled "necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."
The assembly reiterated its "call upon all states to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures (such as those in the US embargo) in conformity with their obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and international law."
It again urged "states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."
Resolutions from the assembly are not legally binding but do reflect international opinion. Only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau joined the United States in voting against the resolution, which has been an annual UN exercise since 1992. Micronesia abstained.
"The economic war unleashed by the US against Cuba, the longest and most ruthless ever known, qualifies as an act of genocide and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the Assembly.
"Throughout these 48 years, the US blockade has caused economic damage to Cuba of over 86 billion dollars," he added. "But more serious than all that is that the US blockade imposes its criminal provisions on Cuba's relations with other countries that make up this General Assembly."
"We'll vote against this resolution and we encourage all delegations that support the rights and a transition to freedom for the Cuban people to do the same," US delegate to the UN Ronald Godard said ahead of the vote.
"We should send a clear message to the Cuban government that it is not the embargo but rather its own denial of the basic human rights of its people that is the cause of their suffering," he added.
Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Finnish Ambassador Kirsti Lintonen said that in spite of "serious criticism on Cuba's human rights record", the 25-nation bloc unanimously voted in favour of the resolution.
"The European Union cannot accept that unilateral measures imposed by the United States on specific countries limit the Union's economic and commercial relations with third countries, in this case Cuba," she said.
But the EU also appeals to Cuba to bring about "real improvements" in the fields of human rights and political freedom, she added.
Australia, which backed the resolution, offered to insert an amendment that would have noted that the US embargo was "motivated by valid concerns about the continued lack of democracy and political freedom in Cuba" and would have called on Havana to "release unconditionally all political prisoners, co-operate fully with international human rights bodies and mechanisms, respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and comply fully with its obligations under all human rights treaties to which it is a state party."
But the Assembly rejected the proposed amendment.
The US embargo dates back to 1961, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion under president John Kennedy.