A/HRC/4/61 page 3 2. The Government indicated that the application of unilateral coercive measures has been a fundamental instrument of the policy of hostility and aggression of the United States of America towards Cuba for more than 45 years. A policy which the Government qualified as an act of genocide, according to article 2 (c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as well as an act of war and an international crime. 3. The Government referred to some of the measures imposed by the United States, including the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, and estimated that the direct economic damage caused by these measures exceeded US$ 86 billion, or an average of US$ 1.8 billion annually. It indicated that the United States authorities showed contempt for the United Nations, multilateralism and international law by continuing its policy of imposing an economic embargo on Cuba in defiance of 15 consecutive resolutions of the General Assembly, the last of which, resolution 61/11, was adopted on 8 November 2006 with the support of 183 Member States. 4. As a result of additional coercive measures, which had been recommended in the report of the so-called “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba”, which entered into force on 30 June 2004, actions against Cuba had intensified. Referring to some of the main economic measures taken against Cuba in the first semester of 2006, the Government indicated, among others, that the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had fined seven persons with a total of US$ 7.2 million for travelling to Cuba as tourists and importing prohibited goods; that OFAC had started to carry out in situ audits of travel agencies to ensure strict application of the prohibition on tourist travel to Cuba and that several travel agencies had had their licences withdrawn; that OFAC had asked the Mexican Tax Administration Service (Servicio de Administración Tributaria) to block the accounts of companies and persons linked to the Government of Cuba; that new OFAC regulations on fines applicable to banking institutions which violate United States legislation on sanctions against different countries, including Cuba, had entered into force on 13 February 2006; and that draft bills (H.R. 5292 and S. 2795) had been presented to the United States Congress in May 2006 “to exclude from admission to the United States aliens who have made investments contributing to the enhancement of the ability of Cuba to develop its petroleum resources, and for other purposes”. 5. The Government also referred to the establishment of new inter-agency mechanisms in the United States to strengthen the economic blockade and maximize its extraterritorial effect, including an inter-agency task force to control and sanction the importation of products containing Cuban nickel, a metal which has become one of the main exports of the Cuban economy. The damages caused by the extraterritorial character of such measures were reinforced by the important participation of the United States and its companies in international trade and investment. 6. The Government indicated that sectors such as food, health, education and transport have been among the main targets of these policies. In the period between April 2005 and March 2006 damages caused by the embargo were estimated to exceed US$ 63.9 million in the food sector, and US$ 48.8 million in the health sector, while damages caused to the education