Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Haiti was still reeling from a devastating quake on January 12, 2010 that killed more than 200,000 people when its misery was compounded by the cholera outbreak.
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The human rights and global law expert added that the U.N.’s years-long refusal to admit its role in causing the cholera outbreak “upholds a double standard according to which the United Nations insists that member states respect human rights, while rejecting any such responsibility for itself”.
The newspaper said the shift was prompted by an internal report, seen by the New York Times and penned by Philip Alson, a professor now serving as the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, that concluded the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the UN”.
They say U.N. peacekeepers were responsible for introducing a cholera epidemic in Haiti in October 2010, following the massive quake that hit the impoverished Caribbean nation.
The group is among several organizations that have filed a federal class action lawsuit in NY seeking compensation for thousands of cholera victims who blame the United Nations for bringing the disease to their country. “A lot of people got sick, a lot have died”, said Michelle Raymond, who said her young son almost died of the waterborne disease in 2013.
“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.
Scientific research into the outbreak had earlier indicated that a group of Nepalese UN troops were the carriers of the disease.
While the U.N.’s latest statements don’t go as far as to shoulder the entire blame, they represent a significant shift from the position maintained over the past six years.
“But promises will not stop cholera’s killing or compensate for the damage to poor families in Haiti”.
A U.N. acknowledgement that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vows to aid victims were welcomed Friday in the Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history. Statements by the U.N.as recently as a couple of weeks ago make no gesture toward accepting responsibility. He noted plaintiffs have 90 days to respond to the decision and file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This is a groundbreaking first step towards justice”, Beatrice Lindstrom, a lawyer at IJDH, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.
In a decision late on Thursday, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in NY upheld a lower court’s January 2015 dismissal of a lawsuit brought by lawyers seeking compensation and a public apology for 5,000 Haitian cholera victims.
Mario Joseph, a human-rights lawyer in Haiti representing cholera victims, said the report’s conclusions are “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”.
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IDHJ executive director Brian Concannon also said, “This is also a victory for people around the world who believe in a United Nations that practices what it preaches on human rights”. The disease continues to sicken Haitians, especially in rural parts of the country without access to clean drinking water.
