The representatives of organizations of the Cuban civil society, with support from regional and international organizations with venue in Cuba, of social actors and organizations, religious, fraternal and national organizations, gathered together at the 13^th Forum of Cuban Civil Society Organizations against the Blockade, agree:

1. To reiterate the demand against the government of the United States of America for the maintenance of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed upon our country, which has caused considerable human and economic damage to the people of Cuba, quantified, according to conservative calculation, in more than 125 873 million dollars at current prices in the more than fifty years of its enforcement.

2. To support the standpoint of the Cuban government that the blockade must be lifted by the United States government unilaterally and unconditionally, abiding by the norms of International Law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

3. To recognize that the blockade persists as a clear massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, and qualifies as an act of genocide, according to the Geneva Convention for the Prevention and Sanction of the Crime of Genocide from 1948, which is a war act according to the London Convention from 1905.

4. To reiterate that the executive measures approved by President Barack Obama have been insufficient, limited and in no way imply directly the total and definitive lifting of the blockade.

5. To urge President Obama, as well as the next United States administration, to use the ample executive faculties he still has that would enable him to truly dismantle the blockade policy. Likewise, we ask the Congress of the United States to pass a law that will enable lifting the blockade to Cuba.

6. To state once more that the blockade is a substantial limitation to the Cuban people’s right to development, which causes lacks and suffering to the Cuban families, with a sensible humanitarian impact and attempts against the access to pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, technologies and therapeutic treatments of the latest generation that alleviate and cure numerous diseases.

7. To demand the end of the persecution of the Cuban international economic relations with third country entities that evidences the extra-territorial nature of the blockade policy.

8. To reject the marked intentionality of the measures approved by Obama when restricting the exports of goods and services from the United States to the telecommunications sector and to the non-state sector of the Cuban economy.

9. To ask the U.S. citizens and our partner organizations in the United States to join the Cuban people’s demand that their government put an end to this obsolete, hostile and unjust policy that affects the normal development of relations between our peoples and governments.

10. To express our thankfulness for the solidarity from all world regions, including numerous examples in the United States, which has always accompanied us in denouncing the blockade.

11. To endorse the presentation to the United National General Assembly of the draft of resolution (A/71/L.3) “Need to Put an End to the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” and request the support of the international community to this noble cause.

12. To reaffirm the right of the Cuban people to the free determination to build its own political, economic and social system without external meddling, and to reiterate our decision to continue the construction of a socialist, independent, and sovereign fatherland.

Havana, October 12, 2016

The OSPAAAL was among the 45 organizations from all sectors of the Cuban civil society, and international and regional organizations with venue in Cuba that participated in the Forum and signed the present Statement