Haiti’s cholera epidemic was traced back to a United Nations facility on the Artibonite River, near a base for Nepalese peacekeepers in the town of Mirebalais.
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The court did not decide the case on the merits of its claim that a contingent of the UN’s peacekeeping mission, which arrived after the quake, had introduced cholera when Nepalese soldiers contaminated waters of a tributary to the Artibonite River, which serves as a primary water source for Haiti’s population centers.
The human rights and worldwide 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”.
On Thursday, Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said that “over the past year the UN has become convinced it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera”.
“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.
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.N.’s actions closely. The model estimated the probability of an epidemic occurring under current United Nations protocols, and compared this against the probability of an epidemic if peacekeepers had been given antibiotics for cholera, screened or vaccinated.
An independent panel appointed by United Nations chief Ban to study the epidemic did not determine conclusively how cholera was introduced to Haiti. Cholera was rife at the time in Nepal, but had never before occurred in Haiti.
Nepalese peacekeepers were stationed at a camp in Mierbalais, along the banks of the Meye, fueling suspicion that the waste of an infected peacekeeper had flowed into the river.
The U.N. countered Concannon’s class action lawsuit by saying it is immune under worldwide law from such legal actions. The organization continues to hold the position it is immune from legal action as a result of the outbreak. But in January 2015, a judge dismissed the lawsuit saying the United Nations has legal immunity that only it can waive. Lawyers representing the Haitian plaintiffs have 90 days to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
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. Haiti’s residents were further angered by the UN’s refusal to admit any part in the outbreak. However, less than a quarter of the amount has been raised.
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The secretary-general noted the decision “upheld the immunity of the Organization from legal proceedings.in accordance with the UN Charter and other worldwide treaties”, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, said while reading a prepared statement.
