Since October 2010, more than 650,000 people in Haiti have suffered from Cholera, and peacekeepers from the United Nations supposedly brought the disease to the country when they visited three years ago. The New York Times says that the lawsuit will be filed on Wednesday by the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
Studies show that U.N. troops from Nepal are likely to have brought the disease into the country, as cholera is a prominent problem in Nepal. The disease would have spread through the sewage at the troops’ barracks in Haiti.
However, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said in February that the U.N. “worked closely with the people and Government of Haiti to provide treatment, improve water and sanitation facilities, and strengthen prevention and early warning,” and denied that any compensation would be given to cholera victims from the U.N.
Some, like U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, feel that the situation could warrant a rare case for compensation. “I have used my voice both inside the United Nations and outside to call for the right — for an investigation by the United Nations, by the country concerned, and I still stand by the call that victims of — of those who suffered as a result of that cholera be provided with compensation.”
