The secretary-general noted there has been a 90 percent reduction in the number of cholera cases in Haiti since the peak of the outbreak in 2011 because of “sustained efforts by national authorities and the worldwide community”, the statement said.
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The statement from deputy spokesman Farhan Haq follows Thursday’s statement in which the United Nations said for the first time that it was involved in the introduction of cholera to Haiti and needs to do “much more” to end the suffering of those who contracted the disease, estimated at more than 800,000 people.
The UN has admitted for the first time that its peacekeepers may have been partly responsible for the cholera epidemic, which killed and estimated 10,000 people.
USA courts have rejected complaints filed by families of cholera victims in NY, where the United Nations is headquartered, due to the world body’s immunity.
Brian Concannon, executive director of the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said advocates for Haitian cholera victims will be watching the U. Over the last 6 years that outbreak has claimed sickened almost a million Haitians and claimed more than 9,000 lives.
The report written by NYU law professor Philip Alston, the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, will likely be published in September and present by Ban at the UN General Assembly in October.
“There still needs to be a public apology to the victims – to the tens of thousands of people who have suffered”.
“Nor does it indicate a change in the organization’s legal position that it is absolutely immune from legal actions”.
“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 lawyer representing victims of the epidemic.
The disease is now considered “endemic” in Haiti, meaning it’s an illness that occurs regularly.
Leading scientists say that Nepalese peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti, and it was then spread down the Meille River when that waste came into contact with the river.
But Ban – whose response came as his own special rapporteur reportedly said the deadly outbreak would not have occurred but for the UN’s presence and as the United Nations acknowledged some role – also said the United Nations was creating a relief package for victims.
The disease is typically contracted through contaminated food or water. Once cholera got a foothold in Haiti, it ran rampant in the country’s open sewers and untreated water supplies. “UN-Oral-Argument_ActiveUS153242982_ActiveUS1-Final.pdf”>hearing March 1 on whether the United Nations should be held accountable for Haiti’s devastating epidemic.
Health experts say cholera, which had not been documented in Haiti in nearly 100 years prior to the outbreak, will continue to kill and infect Haitians as long as they lack access to clean water and sanitation. Clean water is also beyond the reach of many.
Ban is “actively working to develop a package that would provide material assistance and support for those Haitians most directly affected by cholera”, a spokesman said, reading a statement from the UN’s top diplomat, who has four months left in his term.
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At the end of 2012, Ban announced a $2-billion initiative to help eradicate cholera in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.
