Above: a treatment tent shortly after the outbreak in 2010 (UN Photo/UNICEF/Marco Dormino)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
A group seeking “justice and compensation” for victims of cholera in Haiti is planning to march in front of the United Nations on Thursday.
The march is organized by a group called “The Collective Solidarity With Cholera Victims in Haiti.
A number of scientific studies have pointed to UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the cholera epidemic that has killed more than 8,000 people in Haiti, and the group is the latest to seek redress from the UN.
In February, the UN announced that it had deemed claims for compensation on behalf of the victims as “not receivable,” referring to the Immunities and Privileges convention of the United Nations.
The group said it was organizing the march to coincide with the day Haitian officials will speak to the United Nations General Assembly, which is beginning its new session this week.
The group is calling for the UN to “publicly and officially recognize its responsibility” for the introduction of cholera in Haiti and for Haiti’s government and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to establish a “Standing Claims Commission,” something it said was mandated by the agreement keeping the UN’s peacekeeping force in Haiti.
The march is set to begin at 9 AM at East 47th Street and 1st Avenue, in front of UN Headquarters in New York City.