“The Secretary-General deeply regrets the awful suffering the people of Haiti have endured as a result of the cholera epidemic”, said Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Ban, addressing reporters Friday at the UN’s Manhattan headquarters. “United Nations et al, in accordance with the UN Charter and other worldwide treaties”, said a statement issued by Ban’s spokesperson in NY. In the 19-page document, Alston said the UN’s Haiti cholera policy “is morally unconscionable, legally indefensible and politically self-defeating”.
Advertisement
But Haq reiterated that the U.N.’s legal position in claiming immunity hasn’t changed.
While the number of cholera cases has been significantly reduced from the initial outbreak in 2010, the fact that the preventable disease is still routinely sickening and killing Haitians is galling to many.
“There still needs to be a public apology to the victims – to the tens of thousands of people who have suffered. The Secretary-General urges member states to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Haiti by increasing their contributions to eliminate cholera and provide assistance to those affected”, according to the statement. But its acceptance of some responsibility, first reported by the New York Times, was welcomed by lawyers representing Haitian cholera victims.
The statement was prompted by a decision handed down Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in NY which upheld a lower court’s decision the United Nations can not be sued in U.S. courts. They have three months to make up their mind over whether to file an appeal to the US Supreme Court or not.
His comments came after the confidential internal report stated that the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations”, according to the New York Times newspaper. “S. 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”. In 2011, human rights lawyers filed a suit against the United Nations seeking reparations and support in stopping the outbreak and treating those infected.
UNICEF and Haiti’s Ministry of Health launched in Archaie the first phase of a cholera vaccination campaign targeting 400,000 persons in 2016. 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.
Researchers say cholera was first detected in Haiti’s central Artibonite Valley and cite evidence that it was introduced to the country’s biggest river from a United Nations base where Nepalese troops were deployed as part of a peacekeeping operation which has been in the country since 2004.
The bacterial disease, which is spread through contaminated food or water, can quickly overwhelm areas with inadequately treated sewage and drinking water, a common problem after a natural disaster strikes.
The outbreak was devastating in a country that had already lost much of its infrastructure in the natural disaster. Haiti’s residents were further angered by the UN’s refusal to admit any part in the outbreak.
Advertisement
Some 72 percent of Haitians have no toilets at home and, according to the United Nations, 42 percent still lack access to drinking water.
