A UNITED NATIONS General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/RES/51/17 21 November 1996 Fifty-first session Agenda item 27 RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY [without reference to a Main Committee (A/51/L.15)] 51/17. Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba The General Assembly, Determined to encourage strict compliance with the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, Reaffirming, among other principles, the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and non-interference in their internal affairs and freedom of international trade and navigation, which are also enshrined in many international legal instruments, Recalling the statements of the heads of State or Government at the Ibero-American Summits concerning the need to eliminate the unilateral application of economic and trade measures by one State against another which affect the free flow of international trade, Concerned about the continued promulgation and application by Member States of laws and regulations, such as the one promulgated on 12 March 1996 known as the "Helms-Burton Act", the extraterritorial effects of which affect the sovereignty of other States, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction and the freedom of trade and navigation, Taking note of declarations and resolutions of different intergovernmental forums, bodies and Governments which express the rejection by the international community and public opinion of the promulgation and application of regulations of the kind referred to above, 96-77491 /...