News Release

UN Finally Acting on Cholera in Haiti

Share

The United Nations has announced the launch this afternoon of “the Secretary-General’s Initiative for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti.”

BEATRICE LINDSTROM, [email] Lindstrom is a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, which filed a lawsuit against the UN on behalf of thousands of Haitian cholera victims last year. She said: “We are pleased that the UN is finally acting in accord with its legal obligations and taking action to eliminate cholera. This is a positive first step, but there is still a long way to go before justice is served and no time to lose.  Haitians will continue to die needlessly until there is clean water.  Haitian families who have already lost everything to cholera have the right to be made legally whole and deserve a formal recognition of responsibility from the UN.”

Oliver Stone and Just Foreign Policy launched an Avaaz petition for the UN to take responsibility for cholera in Haiti: “The people of Haiti are fighting a deadly cholera epidemic introduced by UN troops that has killed thousands and sickened hundreds of thousands more. Since it caused this catastrophe, let’s push the UN to help Haitians stamp out killer cholera for good.

“Since it began in October 2010, Haiti’s cholera epidemic has killed over 7,700 and brought untold suffering to poor communities, as the prize-winning documentary “Baseball in the Time of Cholera” vividly depicts. Although doctors, scientists, and even UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton recognize that UN troops brought the epidemic to Haiti, the organization has refused to take responsibility.”