In a decision issued late Thursday, the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in NY affirmed a lower court’s January 2015 dismissal of a lawsuit brought in the worst outbreak of cholera in recent history.
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But in a reversal, the United Nations this week acknowledged it did play a role in starting a deadly epidemic that has cost more than 10,000 lives since 2010 and continues to sicken Haitians.
Alston wrote that the United Nations’ Haiti cholera policy “is morally unconscionable, legally indefensible and politically self-defeating,”according to the New York Times”.
The United Nations will give “material” aid to cholera victims in Haiti and their families, the secretary general’s spokesman said Friday, citing the global body’s “moral responsibility”.
A class action suit was brought on behalf of victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti contending UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal brought the disease to the island nation following a massive natural disaster in January 2010, which killed more than 220,000 people and displaced 1.5 million.
Haitians have tried to sue the United Nations for its part in creating the epidemic, but the U.N. has claimed diplomatic immunity. The disease by some estimates, has struck more than 800,000 people.
However, considering that the United Nations has diplomatic immunity, Haq pointed out that it would not be required to pay damages to the victims of the Haiti crisis. Untreated waste from the peacekeepers’ base was discharged into a nearby river and, in short order, Haitians in nearby villages began to get sick and die.
Scientific studies have shown that Nepalese UN troops were the source of the disease – but the UN repeatedly denied responsibility until now.
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.
Vanessa Rouzier examines a child suffering cholera symptoms, as his mother watches, inside Haiti’s first permanent cholera center, run by Gheskio Centers, in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The impoverished Caribbean nation’s healthcare system is still suffering from the fallout of the 2010 natural disaster that killed about 300,000 people.
The United Nations acknowledged on Thursday that it played a role in the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak that has killed almost 10,000 Haitians and infected more than 770,000.
But Haq reiterated that the U.N.’s legal position in claiming immunity hasn’t changed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon walks out after visiting the house of a cholera victim during the launching of sanitation campaign in Hinche, Haiti, July 14, 2014.
“The United Nations also intends to intensify its support to reduce, and ultimately end, the transmission of cholera, improve access to care and treatment and address the longer-term issues of water, sanitation and health systems in Haiti”, said the statement. At the time, the panel said it could not attribute responsibility to one individual or group.
Cholera, which is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhea, is a major challenge in a country with poor sanitary conditions.
The outbreak was devastating in a country that had already lost much of its infrastructure in the quake.
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Six years on, the bacteria is far from eradicated in Haiti.
