Cholera
Cholera Accountability Project
Overview|Litigation|Get Involved|Recent Developments
Overview
Cholera broke out in Haiti in October 2010, and continues to constitute a grave medical emergency. Overwhelming evidence has established that reckless disposal of human waste by a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping base in Mirebalais poisoned Haiti’s rivers with a particularly deadly strain of cholera bacteria and created the epidemic. Now, despite even UN Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton’s acknowledgment that the UN was the “proximate cause” of the epidemic, the UN refused to accept responsibility and control cholera in Haiti. BAI and IJDH represent Haitian victims of cholera in their quest for justice from the UN.
In November 2011, we filed 5,000 claims with the UN, seeking: The installation of a national water and sanitation system that will control the epidemic, Compensation for individual victims of cholera for their losses, A public apology from the United Nations for its wrongful acts.
The Cholera Accountability Project (CAP) works with Haitian grassroots groups and international advocates in a broad-based campaign to force the UN to take action to stop the cholera’s killing. Diarrheal disease and lack of safe water are the worst public health problems in Haiti. Our case demands the installation of water and sanitation infrastructure that will control the epidemic and save more than 5,000 lives each year.
In February 2013, after 15 months of silence, the UN tersely dismissed the claims in a two-line decision deeming the claims “not receivable.”
IJDH and BAI are now taking the fight for justice to a court of law.
The Cholera Litigation
BAI and IJDH’s groundbreaking case against the UN stands to transform global accountability by challenging the UN to live up to its mission of promoting human rights for all. Click here to learn more about the litigation and our ongoing efforts to use the law to obtain a sustainable and just solution to cholera in Haiti.
Watch powerful video messages from our clients.
6-minute video message / 1-minute video message
FAQs about the UN’s responsibility and IJDH’s case.
Support the fight for justice for Haitian victims of cholera.
The cholera campaign’s success depends on the involvement of individuals like you.
Get involved today by:
- Adding your signature to a petition to the UN to provide clean water & sanitation in Haiti: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/End_Haitis_Cholera_Epidemic_with_UN_Action_Now_1/
- Making your voice heard on Twitter by sending a message to @UN
- Donating to support the case
- Watching and sharing Baseball in the Time of Cholera
CAP is proud to be featured in Baseball in the Time of Cholera, an award-winning film that was released online July 12, 2012. The filmfollows Joseph, a young Haitian baseball player, and BAI Managing Attorney Mario Joseph, who is fighting for justice for cholera victims. As the epidemic spreads, the two stories intersect in the struggle for survival and justice.
“Baseball in the Time of Cholera” Please join IJDH volunteers throughout North America in supporting the fight for justice for Haiti’s cholera victims by hosting a screening of the award-winning film Baseball in the Time of Cholera. Click HERE to find out more.
BAI’s Managing Attorney Mario Joseph is leading the fight for justice for cholera.
Click below to watch a personal 3-minute message from Mario.
Recent Developments – Media Coverage
Haitian Cholera Victims to UN: Start Talks for Compensation or We’ll Sue for Billions, Counsel & Heal, May 9, 2013
U.N. Faces Suit over Haitian Cholera Deaths, Associated Press, May 9, 2013
“Haiti Cholera Victims Threaten to Sue UN”, Al Jazeera, May 9, 2013
“Haiti Cholera Victims Threaten to Sue the UN”, BBC, May 8, 2013
“Haiti Lawyers give UN Cholera Compensation Deadline”, AFP, May 8, 2013
“Must-Reads from Around the World”, TIME, May 9, 2013
“Haïti : les victimes du choléra donnent un ultimatum à l’ONU”, Radio-Canada, May 8, 2013
Kim Ives, Haiti Liberte May 24, 2013 On May 8, lawyers representing over 5,000 Haitian cholera victims told the United Nations that they are taking the world body to court in 60 days if it doesn’t accept responsibility for introducing the deadly microbe into Haiti’s waters. Lawyers Brian Concannon, Jr. and Ira Kurzban of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) said they will file a lawsuit in New York courts in early July if UN officials don’t walk back their claim to be immune from all responsibility for unleashing the world’s deadliest cholera epidemic when they allowed cholera-infected Nepalese troops to deploy and discharge their sewage into the headwaters of the Artibonite River on Haiti’s Central Plateau in October 2010. Since then, the disease has spread throughout Haiti, killing over 8,300 and sickening over 670,000. Meanwhile, on … Continue reading George Russell, FoxNews.com May 23, 2013 As the annual rainy season gathers over Haiti, bringing the risk of a renewed cholera epidemic that first struck in October 2011, growing numbers of health care professionals and relief workers are openly critical of the United Nations — which many believe brought the deadly disease to Haiti in the first place. “The situation is worse than it was two years ago, “ says Duncan McLean, a health program manager for Doctors Without Borders, a voluntary organization that treated some 23,000 Haitians for cholera last year. “I’m very, very concerned about the state of cholera preparation in Haiti. The situation has become more dangerous than it was before.” More than 656,000 people have been infected, and 8,090 died of water-borne cholera as of March 31, according to the Haitian health ministry, and according to McLean, … Continue reading By Lauren Carasik, Common Dreams May 13, 2013 Advocates for over 5,000 victims of cholera in Haiti put the UN on notice that they intend to file suit in a national court if the UN continues its refusal to provide compensation for its negligence in introducing cholera to the country. Haiti’s first cholera epidemic in over a century compounded the misery in a country reeling from the devastating 2010 earthquake that ravaged its already vulnerable health and sanitation system. As of this month, the epidemic has caused incalculable suffering – the death toll from cholera exceeds 8,100, and over 654,000 Haitians have been sickened. Despite multiple scientific studies that have consistently attributed the cause of the outbreak of cholera in Haiti to UN troops from Nepal and the UN’s negligent waste disposal system, the UN is claiming that it is … Continue reading COMMISSION INTERAMÉRICAINE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME May 9, 2013 Ce rapport a été établi dans le cadre du Mémorandum d’accord intervenu entre la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme (CIDH), le Fonds desNations Unies pourl’enfance (UNICEF), et le Haut‐commissariat aux droits de l’homme (HCDH). L’établissement etla publication de ce rapport a été possible grâce à l’appui financier de l’UNICEF, de l’HCDH, du Gouvernement italien et de la Fondation Open Society Institute. La Commission voudrait remercier le consultant, Juan Faroppa, pour avoir élaboré ce rapport de même que rendre hommage aux travaux préparatoires effectués par le consultant Paulo de Mesquita Neto ainsi qu’à la contribution de la consultante Veronica Gomez. Click HERE to see the Original Report Radio-Canada May 8, 2013 L’Institut pour la justice et la démocratie en Haïti (IJDH), basé aux États-Unis, a donné à l’ONU 60 jours pour indemniser les victimes du choléra dans le pays antillais. Autrement, l’ONU sera poursuivie en justice par l’organisme qui affirme représenter 8000 victimes et leurs familles. Au total, plus de 650 000 personnes ont été touchées et 8100 personnes sont mortes depuis le début de l’épidémie, en octobre 2010. En juin 2011, une étude publiée par les Centres américains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (CDC) avait conclu que le choléra avait été introduit en Haïti par des Casques bleus népalais. Mais l’ONU n’a pas reconnu sa responsabilité dans l’épidémie, estimant qu’il est impossible de déterminer formellement l’origine de la maladie. Le directeur de l’IJDH, Brian Concannon, a indiqué que la plainte intentée contre l’ONU serait déposée à New York si les Nations unies ne répondaient pas … Continue reading By Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press May 8, 2013 UNITED NATIONS, May 8 — For killing 8,000 people in Haiti by UN Peacekeeping’s introduction of cholera, according to the lawyers who filed claims and are now prepared to sue, the UN’s response has been a short letter in December 2011 and a dismissal of claims in February 2013. In a letter just filed with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s lawyer Patricia O’Brien, the claimants’ lawyers give the UN sixty day before filing suit. (Inner City Press put the letter online, here, just after the 2 pm embargo.) Inner City Press asked them if they intend to sue in the European Court of Human Rights, where a recent decision lays the groundwork for such a case. Ira Kurzban said one case in the United States, and another in an undisclosed venue in … Continue reading Cholera Legal Suit Against the UN Takes Shape Lawyers Seek Haitian Claimants in New York
As Renewed Haiti Cholera Crisis Looms, UN Blamed For Inadequate Effort
As the UN Evades Responsibility for the Cholera Epidemic, Haitians Continue to Suffer
RAPPORT SUR LA SÉCURITÉ CITOYENNE ET LES DROITS HUMAINS
Haïti : les victimes du choléra donnent un ultimatum à l’ONU
On Haiti Cholera, Threat to Sue in 60 Days As UN Has Not Reformed