The UN has still not accepted any legal responsibility for the deaths or agreed to compensate the families of those affected.
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For decades, the UN has stood by the Haitian people, supporting them in their quest for democracy and the strengthening of their institutions and helping to rebuild the nation after the tragic natural disaster of 2010, the statement said and added: “The secretary-general and the United Nations as a whole are determined to continue this support, honour the people of Haiti and help them usher in a more peaceful and prosperous future”.
Since its introduction to Haiti in October 2010, cholera has killed more than 9,300 Haitians and sickened over 800,000.
The move comes two days after the United Nations acknowledged for the first time that its Nobel Peace Prize winning blue helmets brought cholera to Haiti.
“United Nations et al, in accordance with the UN Charter and other worldwide treaties”, said a statement issued by Ban’s spokesperson in NY.
The New York Times first reported the story on Thursday, quoting from a confidential report forwarded to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by a close adviser on August 8.
The US courts have rejected claims for compensation filed by victims’ families.
The comments come in response to a report by United Nations special rapporteur and New York University law professor Philip Alston.
“We will decide how to proceed based on whether the U.N.’s actions fulfill the cholera victims’ rights to an effective remedy”, Concannon said in a statement.
“This is a groundbreaking first step towards justice”, said Beatrice Lindstrom of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which is pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the UN.
The United Nations (UN) has admitted playing a part in starting a cholera epidemic that killed thousands in Haiti after an natural disaster rocked the Caribbean nation in 2010.
With its temperate climate and infrastructure-including waste treatment facilities-decimated by the quake, Haiti provided ideal conditions for the bacteria to thrive, and the disease spread quickly.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement Thursday the United Nations has been considering a series of options and “a significantly new set of U.N. actions” will be presented publicly within the next two months.
The quake crippled the capital of Port-au-Prince, killing 200,000 people, then the cholera outbreak sickened hundreds of thousands of others, and killing 10,000.
“This is a major victory for the thousands of Haitians who have been marching for justice, writing to the United Nations and bringing the U.N.to court”, said Mario Joseph, a Haitian human rights attorney whose law firm has led a high-profile claim on behalf of 5,000 cholera victims who blame the United Nations for introducing the disease.
That lawyerly posture was heedless of the United Nations charter, whose preamble affirms its commitment to human rights, “better standards of life” and other goals at odds with a flat refusal to own up to the facts in Haiti.
“The Secretary General is actively working to develop a package that would provide material assistance and support to those Haitians most directly affected by cholera”, the statement said.
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Cholera is a disease that spreads through contaminated water and causes nausea and severe diarrhea.
