by Ed Pilkington, June 02, 2016.

Letter discussed United Nations’
‘human rights obligation’ amid deadly outbreak peacekeepers
brought into Haiti after years of evading responsibility.




The United
Nations is showing the first signs of compromise over the Haiti
cholera epidemic, after more than five years in which it has
consistently refused to accept responsibility for a disaster that has
claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Groups working with Haitian victims
have greeted the apparent shift in the UN’s position as a potential
breakthrough in a crisis that has devastated one of the poorest
countries in the world and sapped the credibility of the very
organization that was supposed to be helping it.

The deadly bacterium was imported into
the country in 2010 by infected UN peacekeepers who dumped
contaminated sewerage directly into local rivers. Latest
studies suggest that at least 30,000 people have died, with more
than two million survivors of the illness.


The UN’s olive branch comes in a
letter
from its second-in-command, Jan Eliasson, in response to sharp
criticisms leveled against the UN leadership by the
organization’s own human rights experts. Five UN special
rapporteurs on human rights wrote to secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in
March warning him that his dogged refusal to accept the UN’s role
in bringing cholera to Haiti was undermining the world body’s
reputation.



In his letter, Eliasson replies: “The
secretary-general and I are fully committed to ensuring that the
organization fulfills its human rights obligations.” Though he does
not mention the vexed question of responsibility for the catastrophe,
he does say he is willing to “engage further” in discussing ways
in which the UN could do more to “assist the victims of cholera and
their communities”.



He even holds out the vague, though
significant, promise that resources “could be fine-tuned or
expanded as needed”.

Beatrice Lindstrom, a staff attorney
with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
(IJDH) which works with Haitian cholera victims, said that “this
looks like a potential breakthrough. For five years the UN has
refused to engage at any level on this, but now for the first time
they are acknowledging that they have human rights obligations and
are ready to sit down and talk”.


The letter suggests a dramatic change
in tack by Ban. 
The top official’s position until now has been that
the world body is protected by immunity from claims against it, even
though the UN’s own treaties stipulate that “compensation
commissions” should be set up to provide redress to individuals
harmed by the UN’s actions.

A factor behind the new approach of
Ban and his inner team may be the federal
lawsuit brought on behalf of Haitian cholera victims that is
currently being considered by the federal second circuit appeals
court in New York. 

The legal action presents overwhelming scientific
evidence that the cholera bacterium was brought to Haiti in October
2010 by UN peacekeepers who were relocated from an area of Nepal
where the disease is endemic.

No effort was made to screen the
incoming peacekeepers or to vaccinate them prophylactically to guard
against spreading the deadly illness. A leaked
report by the UN’s own investigators based on research carried
out a month after the outbreak found an astonishing failure to ensure
even basic hygiene standards at the peacekeepers’ camp at
Mirebalais.


Lindstrom, who is lead attorney on the
lawsuit, said that despite the conciliatory note of Eliasson’s
letter the onus still lay on the UN to set things right. 
“This
presents a test of leadership to Ban
Ki-moon months before he steps down – he needs to act quickly
to open up a dialogue with experts on how justice can be achieved
here.”


In an annex to the Eliasson letter,
the UN sets out the varied ways it claims to be striving to contain
the ongoing epidemic that continues to kill scores of Haitians every
month. 
It says medicines have been supplied to diarrhea treatment
centers, sanitary systems built and a vaccination program started for
up to 100,000 people.

But the stark fact remains that only
18% of the total funds pledged by the UN to eradicate cholera from
Haiti over 10 years has so far been raised. Health
experts on the ground complain that UN support is grossly inadequate.


Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer
of Partners in Health which has operated in Haiti for 30 years, was
scathing about the UN’s role in tackling an epidemic it
inadvertently triggered. “The UN has not been involved in providing
funds or medicines to treat the sick,” she said.

“The UN has not been involved in
setting up special medical tents for cholera patients. What has the
UN done to provide water and sanitation infrastructure? Nothing.”

She went on: “Yes, the UN has done
some education campaigns teaching people how to wash their hands. But
that is wildly insufficient – it’s laughable – compared with
the scale of the epidemic.”




SOURCE: the Guardian