Originally published in The Guardian
Jacob Kushner
March 16, 2020
Excerpt below:
In 2011, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a US-based legal advocacy organisation, filed a claim against the UN on behalf of 5,000 Haitian victims. The UN rejected the claim as ‘not receivable’ and has refused to establish a standing claims commission to hear the dispute, although its peacekeeping agreement with Haiti requires it to do so.
Nor has the UN created commissions to consider any of the other claims against UN peacekeepers in Haiti, including wrongful killings and child abuse. In 2013, IJDH sued the UN in the US federal court, which dismissed the case citing legal immunity.
Some in Haiti say the UN’s actions during the cholera outbreak go beyond negligence, amounting to a deliberate cover-up that may have unnecessarily endangered lives.
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