A/HRC/4/12 page 6 7. The restrictions imposed by the embargo help to deprive Cuba of vital access to medicines, new scientific and medical technology, food, chemical water treatment and electricity. The disastrous effects of the embargo in terms of the economic, social and cultural rights of the Cuban people have been denounced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization (see all the reports issued by these specialized agencies in 2002). 8. The embargo, and particularly the Torricelli and Helms-Burton acts, also have serious impacts in terms of the civil and political rights of Cuban citizens, by provoking a reaction on the part of the Cuban authorities, who take the opportunity offered by a foreign State’s interference in Cuban domestic policy to adopt repressive laws, such as Act No. 88 on “protection of Cuba’s national and economic independence”. As the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cuba, Carl-Johan Groth, noted in 1997 in his report to the Commission at its fifty-third session, by means of the above-mentioned laws “the United States of America assumes the right to be the outside party that determines the rules for converting the current totalitarian system into a different, more pluralist one” (E/CN.4/1997/53, para. 46). 9. As a result, many Cuban citizens who are regarded by the Government of Cuba as being involved in this effort are identified as “mercenaries working for foreign interests” who should be punished under repressive laws such as Act No. 88. 10. President Carter, when preparing his report of 21 May 2002 following his visit to Cuba, pointed out that the best-known dissidents are unanimous in opposing the strengthening of a very hard United States line towards Cuba, as well as any funding of their activities - which might substantiate the claim, long upheld by President Castro, that they are “lackeys of Washington”. 11. The difficulties the Cuban population has encountered as a result of the embargo have been compounded since 2004, particularly as a result of the tighter economic and financial restrictions imposed by the United States in May. These measures are supplemented by significant limitations on the movement of persons and goods. Consequently: − Family visits by Cuban-Americans are limited to one every three years instead of one a year; − Family members can only send parcels to their immediate relatives; − The authorized daily allowance visitors can bring into Cuba has been cut by two thirds. These restrictions constitute arbitrary interference in the private and family lives of individuals and a disproportionate hindrance to their freedom of movement, thereby infringing on the exercise of their fundamental rights.