Sanctions

“I do believe I will have the honour of taking Cuba” – US President Trump.

The United States has imposed ruthless sanctions across the world , none greater and longer lasting than those against Cuba. 11 million Cubans known the effects of these sanctions, only last Friday the entire electricity grid in Cuba fell over. The United States has imposed sanctions on oil supply to the island nation, which is crucial for its diesel electricity generators.

Since 1961, the United States blockade against Cuba has had a severe impact on fuel, electricity, education, health, agriculture, and transportation. Each year the United Nations votes for the United States to lift the blockade of Cuba.

The United States imposes similar unilateral blockades and sanctions against many countries.

The Lancet

Sanctions can lead to reductions in the quantity and quality of public health provision driven by:

• sanctions-induced declines in public revenues; 
• decreased availability of essential imports, resulting from sanctions-induced reductions in foreign exchange earnings, which limit access to medical supplies, food, and other crucial goods; 
• and constraints on humanitarian organisations through real or perceived sanctions-induced barriers that hinder their ability to operate effectively in target countries. 

Concern with the humanitarian effect of conventional cross-cutting sanctions regimes has prompted numerous reform initiatives over the years.

Despite these initiatives, the use of economic sanctions has grown substantially in recent decades. According to calculations made using the Global Sanctions Database (GSDB), 25% of all countries were subject to some type of sanctions by either the USA, the EU, or the UN in the 2010–22 period, by contrast with an average of only 8% in the 1960s. This increase is driven by the growth of sanctions that have the claimed aim to end wars, protect human rights, or promote democracy.10

The Lancet aimed to investigate the impact of sanctions on mortality in target countries using a cross-national panel dataset of age-specific mortality rates and sanctions events for 152 countries between 1971 and 2021.

Findings

They focused on three sanctioning authorities: The UN, the US, and the EU (and its predecessor).

“We estimate that unilateral sanctions over this period caused 564,258 deaths per year, similar to the global mortality burden associated with armed conflict,” the authors noted.

When extrapolated across the 51-year span, it amounted to a total of 28.8 million deaths.

“We found the strongest effects for unilateral, economic, and US sanctions, whereas we found no statistical evidence of an effect for UN sanctions.“

#End the blockade of Cuba

#End the siege of Gaza

# Stop the war against Iran

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Randa Abdel-Fattah has not been deterred from speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in the war on Gaza, and the experience of Muslim Australians since 9/11. At this event organised in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week, she joins that festival’s former Director Louise Adler, to talk about her latest novel, Discipline, and the experience of art imitating life.

This conversation was recorded at the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Constellations: Not Writers’ Week festival on 1 March 2026.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/bigideas/randa-abdel-fattah-louise-adler-adelaide-not-writers-week-/106394358?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared