Cholera has killed more than 8,300 Haitians and sickened more than 650,000 in the earthquake-ravaged country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, since it first reappeared in October 2010. Beatrice Lindstrom, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, the Boston-based rights group that prepared the lawsuit, said in a telephone interview that the listed plaintiffs were five cholera victims, who were seeking redress for themselves and all afflicted Haitians and their families. The decision to file the suit in New York comes after the United Nations said earlier this year that it would not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation claimed by cholera victims in impoverished Haiti. Eight months ago, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, informed Haitian leaders that it would not accept claims for compensation made by victims of the outbreak, citing a provision of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Navi Pillay, the top human rights official at the United Nations, suggested on Tuesday from her headquarters in Geneva that Haiti’s cholera victims were entitled to some compensation, although she did not specify who should provide it. Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Mr. Ban, declined to comment on the lawsuit but asserted that the United Nations remained dedicated to helping Haiti overcome the epidemic. “The United Nations is working on the ground with the government and people of Haiti both to provide immediate and practical assistance to those affected,” Mr. Haq said in a statement, “and to put in place better infrastructure and services for all.”
– It's cholera in the time of litigation: Haitian victims of the disease are filing a lawsuit against the UN, claiming peacekeepers are responsible for the outbreak that has killed more than 8,300 and sickened some 650,000 there since 2010. The Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which is preparing the lawsuit, already tried to get the UN to pay compensation to victims and their families in 2011, reports Reuters, but an independent UN panel at the time found the origin of the disease was inconclusive. However, other studies have linked the outbreak to UN peacekeepers from Nepal, suggesting they carried a distinct strain of the disease, which leaked into Haitian water supplies through a bad sanitation system, the New York Times reports. "We are asking for the judge to find the United Nations liable," says an IJDH spokeswomen. "It has violated its legal obligations through reckless actions that brought cholera to Haiti." The suit will be filed at a US District Court in New York today, though it's unclear whether the court will actually accept it—one legal expert tells the Times the UN is generally immune from domestic lawsuits.