Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoOHCHR / CUBA CRISIS
STORY: OHCHR / CUBA CRISIS
TRT: 02:30
SOURCE: OHCHR / UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Aerial shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
13 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We are extremely worried about Cuba’s deepening socio-economic crisis – amid a decades-long financial and trade embargo, extreme weather events, and the recent U.S. measures restricting oil shipments. This is having an increasingly severe impact on the human rights of people in Cuba.”
4. Wide shot, briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Given the dependence of health, food, and water systems on imported fossil fuels, the current oil scarcity has put the availability of essential services at risk nationwide.”
6. Wide shot, briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Intensive care units and emergency rooms are compromised, as are the production, delivery, and storage of vaccines, blood products, and other temperature-sensitive medications.”
8. Wide shot, briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“In Cuba, more than 80 percent of water pumping equipment depends on electricity, and power cuts are undermining access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.”
10. Wide shot, briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The electricity cuts also affect communications and access to information.”
12. Wide shot, briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The long-term, sustained impact of sectoral sanctions creates economic hardship and weakens the State's capacity to fulfill its core responsibilities, including providing protection and assistance services. This increases the risk of fueling social disruption in Cuba.”
14. Wide shot, briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The State, for its part, needs to ensure it is prepared to respond in accordance with international human rights law, being attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable and prioritizing mediation, de-escalation, and the safeguarding of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression for all.”
16. Wide shot, briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reiterates his call on all states to lift unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate impact on the population. Policy goals cannot justify actions that in themselves violate human rights.”
18. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
Today (13 Feb), UN Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Marta Hurtado said, “We are extremely worried about Cuba’s deepening socio-economic crisis – amid a decades-long financial and trade embargo, extreme weather events, and the recent U.S. measures restricting oil shipments.”
She highlighted, “This is having an increasingly severe impact on the human rights of people in Cuba.”
“Given the dependence of health, food, and water systems on imported fossil fuels, the current oil scarcity has put the availability of essential services at risk nationwide,” Hurtado told reporters at the UN bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
“Intensive care units and emergency rooms are compromised, as are the production, delivery, and storage of vaccines, blood products, and other temperature-sensitive medications,” she said.
“In Cuba, more than 80 percent of water pumping equipment depends on electricity, and power cuts are undermining access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene,” the spokesperson said. “The electricity cuts also affect communications and access to information.”
She added that “the long-term, sustained impact of sectoral sanctions creates economic hardship and weakens the State's capacity to fulfill its core responsibilities, including providing protection and assistance services”.
“This increases the risk of fueling social disruption in Cuba.”
“The State, for its part, needs to ensure it is prepared to respond in accordance with international human rights law, being attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable and prioritizing mediation, de-escalation, and the safeguarding of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression for all,” Hurtado stated.
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reiterates his call on all states to lift unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate impact on the population. Policy goals cannot justify actions that in themselves violate human rights,” she said.
