UN faces lawsuit over Haiti cholera epidemic

Lawyers representing Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic they blame on UN peacekeepers announced they were filing a lawsuit against the UN, with a New York court seeking compensation from the world body.

The decision to file the legal case comes after the UN said earlier this year that it would not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation claimed by cholera victims in impoverished Haiti, where the epidemic has killed more than 8,300 people and sickened more than 650,000 since October 2010.

“The plaintiffs include Haitians and Haitian Americans who contracted cholera themselves as well as family members of those who died of the disease,” the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said in a statement on Wednesday.

An independent panel appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to study the epidemic issued a 2011 report that did not determine conclusively how the cholera was introduced to Haiti.

But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that evidence strongly suggested UN peacekeepers from Nepal were the source.

Cholera is an infection causing severe diarrhoea that can lead to dehydration and death. It occurs in places with poor sanitation.

Diplomatic immunity

In November 2011, the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti filed a petition at the UN headquarters in New York seeking a minimum of $100,000 for the families or next-of-kin of each person killed by cholera and at least $50,000 for each victim who suffered illness or injury from cholera.

Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said in February of this year that the world body advised the representatives of the cholera victims that “the claims are not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities”.

Under Section 29 the United Nations is required to make provisions for “appropriate modes of settlement” of private law disputes to which the world body is a party or disputes involving a UN official who enjoys diplomatic immunity.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said at the time it was disappointed by the UN decision and would pursue the case in court.

It was not immediately clear how the issue of diplomatic immunity for the United Nations would impact the lawsuit being filed in the New York court.

Ban launched a $2.2bn initiative in December 2012 to stamp out cholera over the next decade in Haiti.