The Fight Against UN Impunity and Immunity in Haiti: the Cholera Scandal - Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti

The fight against UN impunity and immunity in Haiti: The cholera scandal - Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti 02 Assessing the accountability of the world’s leading institutions - Christina Laybourn The movement to include people with disabilities in a human rights framework - Julia Wolhandler State of Civil Society/ Citizens demanding accountability in the international arena The fight against firmed that the contaminated tributary was immunity from legal prosecution for acts the source of the outbreak. of sexual violence, excessive use of force UN impunity and and other misconduct. Groups that had immunity in Haiti: Despite ample, unrefuted evidence been active in organising against MINUSTAH pointing to the UN, the organisation has impunity understood that making noise (fè the cholera not responded justly to demands that it bri in Haitian Creole) would be critical to accept responsibility, compensate victims persuading the UN to respond justly to the scandal and take action to strengthen Haiti’s water cholera epidemic. These groups initially took Mario Joseph and sanitation system in order to eliminate the lead in organising peaceful demonstrations Bureau des Avocats Internationaux cholera. The cholera outbreak received on cholera and also mobilised community renewed attention last October when the education campaigns on cholera prevention. Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a Introduction Haitian public interest law firm, and its sister The early demonstrations quickly grew into organisation in the United States (US), the an informal and decentralised movement In October 2010, an epidemic of cholera broke Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti of victims’ groups and community organi- out in Meille, Haiti for the first time in the (IJDH), filed an unprecedented class action sations across Haiti, staging demonstrations country’s recorded history. It soon became suit against the UN. Although the lawsuit from Cap Haïtien in the north to St. Marc in the worst single-country cholera epidemic in marks a crucial step, the fight for justice is the west and Les Cayes in the south. In the modern times. By the end of 2013, the disease largely being waged outside the courtroom. capital of Port-au-Prince, fourteen grass- had killed 8,500 people and sickened another While the UN continues to deny responsibility, roots groups established the Kolektif pou 700,000.1 Almost immediately after the first an informal network of victims, victims’ dedomaje viktim kolera an Ayiti, a collective victims fell ill, residents of Meille identified a advocates, journalists, lawyers, doctors, that organised demonstrations, held press UN peacekeeping base as the source of the scientists and other concerned citizens is conferences and engaged with local and outbreak.2 The base, located on the banks of successfully mobilising to challenge the global international media to raise the profile of the a tributary to Haiti’s principal river system, accountability framework and secure justice issue and shed light on the injustice. Groups provided housing for peacekeepers serv- for the cholera victims. such as Association Haitienne de Droit de l’En- ing in the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti vironnement (AHDEN), a non-profit environ- (MINUSTAH). The Meille residents had long mental law group, sought to engage the UN endured noxious odours emanating from the Exposing the injustice directly by writing to the UN Secretary-Gen- base and waste overflowing from its disposal eral and demanding a more just response. Organising in Haiti pits toward their homes when it rained.3 Demonstrations on cholera continue to date International journalists who conducted fol- MINUSTAH’s introduction of cholera to Haiti and have on several occasions attracted thou- low-up investigations at the base documented occurred at a time of mounting popular sands of people demanding that MINUSTAH sewage pipes emptying into the Meille tribu- discontent with the Mission for its perceived accept responsibility and provide compensa- tary.4 Shortly thereafter, epidemiologists con- lack of accountability to the population and tion for the victims. 99 State of Civil Society / Citizens demanding accountability in the international arena Building international awareness transparency and accountability were pub- Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human In the weeks and months immediately follow- licly dismissed as “attempts at stigmatiza- activity.”8 The findings came as no surprise to ing the outbreak, Haitian and international tion,”5 a counter-productive “blame game” the Haitian public or to others who had been news agencies reported heavily on cholera. and a “political” diversion from the human- monitoring the crisis, but added significant The Associated Press and Al Jazeera English itarian response,6 despite strong consen- credence to the movement and spurred an played a remarkable role in investigating sus among public health professionals that additional wave of media coverage pressuring the source and exposing UN responsibility understanding the origins of an epidemic is the UN to acknowledge responsibility, includ- for cholera before any official investigations critical to an effective response.7 Over time, ing hard-hitting reports by the BBC and The were underway. Haitian news outlets persis- however, the persistent organising – com- New York Times, among others. tently pressed the UN for answers at press bined with investigations and follow-up conferences and spread public from journalists and the release of Legal efforts to awareness through extensive scientific reports establishing seek justice radio coverage and newspa- a genetic link – pushed the per articles. Many inter- UN to conduct a thorough Seeking to brush aside the mounting evidence, national news agencies investigation into the the UN continued to skirt responsibility by were at first reluctant to source of the epidemic. citing the panel’s findings as inconclusive. report on the UN’s cul- In January 2011, the Faced with the UN’s unrelenting position, pability, however, serv- UN Secretary-General victims and grassroots groups in Haiti began ing instead as an echo relented to pressure to seek legal avenues for securing a just chamber for the UN to and announced the response. In the late summer of 2011 – as object to the allegations. appointment of a panel the one-year anniversary of the outbreak Activists worked hard to of independent experts to approached without an appropriate response educate the international study the origins of cholera from the UN – BAI began to organise victims press about the evidence and in Haiti. in the Central Plateau, the region hit hardest latest developments in the early by the outbreak. BAI worked with community investigations and genetic testing, which The international research team commis- leaders, who in turn mobilised victims to over time allowed for continuous coverage of sioned by the UN released its findings in May come forward and helped prepare over 5,000 the story and put pressure on the UN to con- 2011. The panel’s report included genetic and legal claims on their behalf. duct a formal investigation. epidemiological evidence tying the source of the outbreak to the MINUSTAH base, finding In accordance with the UN’s international Pushing for investigations into the source that “[t]he evidence overwhelmingly sup- law obligations to hear claims from individ- Despite these efforts, the UN rebuffed the ports the conclusion that the source of the uals harmed by its negligence and provide growing circumstantial evidence, denying the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamina- redress, BAI and IJDH submitted the claims very possibility of a causal link and refusing tion of the Meye Tributary of the Artibonite to MINUSTAH in Port-au-Prince and UN head- a formal investigation. Civil society calls for River with a pathogenic strain of current South 100 State of Civil Society/ Citizens demanding accountability in the international arena quarters in New York in November 2011.9 The Accountability,” the authors explain how the responsibility for cholera has since become victims petitioned for remedies in the form of UN has a legal obligation to hear claims from the topic of numerous academic conferences, a) clean water and sanitation infrastructure Haitian cholera victims. Media outlets around panels and legal scholarship. The involvement to control the epidemic, b) fair compensation the world condemned the UN’s dismissal in of influential legal scholars is an invaluable for their losses, and c) a public acceptance of front-page stories and editorials. The edito- component in the movement for justice, as responsibility. Additionally, they requested rial board of The Washington Post newspaper their efforts lay the groundwork for systemic that the UN establish a standing claims com- stressed that “by refusing to acknowledge improvements to the international accounta- mission to hear the claims, as required by the responsibility, the United Nations jeopardises bility framework. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that gov- its standing and moral authority in Haiti and erns MINUSTAH’s operations in Haiti. These in other countries where its personnel are efforts were accompanied by a strong media deployed,”11 and The New York Times news- Public advocacy for a campaign that drew the paper’s editorial board just response attention of prominent urged the organisa- international media “The absence of tion to “acknowledge Continued organising in Haiti outlets, including daily responsibility,

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