Cuba has ratified two international human rights treaties at the United Nations. On Thursday, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The move comes just four days after longtime President Fidel Castro stepped down. At the UN, Roque renewed calls for an end to the US embargo on Cuba.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque: “We will never negotiate our sovereignty and our right to be an independent country. We will never make any concession for the lifting of the embargo. The embargo has to be lifted, because it is a violation of the international law. It is a violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, and it is a violation of the human rights of the American people.”