On October 14, BAI, IJDH and some of our allies posted portraits of UN cholera victims at UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince, New York City, and Geneva. We wanted to remind the UN that cholera victims are real people and demand justice for the victims and their families. This article describes the campaign, called Face Justice, as well as Haitian diaspora, UN officials, and others’ support for accountability.
Part of the article is below. Click HERE for the full text.
On Outbreak’s Fifth Anniversary: New “Face Justice” Campaign Launched on Behalf of Haiti’s Cholera Victims
Kim Ives, Haïti Liberté
October 14, 2015
Five years ago this month, the first cases of cholera in more than a century started to multiply in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley. Today, some 9,000 Haitians have died and 746,000 have been sickened by what mushroomed into the world’s worst cholera epidemic.
United Nations troops from Nepal brought the disease into Haiti, several scientific studies have definitively established. Sewage from their outhouses leaked into the headwaters of the Artibonite, Haiti’s largest river, which is used for irrigation, bathing, and drinking water.
Nonetheless, the UN continues to reject any responsibility for its negligence in unleashing cholera in Haiti, despite two on-going lawsuits against it.
The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) was the first to bring suit within the UN’s own grievance structure back in November 2011. This went nowhere, and the IJDH had to pursue its lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York. In January, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled that the UN had immunity from prosecution. The IJDH has appealed that decision.
Click HERE for the full text.