Above: UN Headquarters in New York City

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Human rights groups have filed suit against the United Nations in federal court in the United States for its alleged role in bringing cholera to Haiti.

The suit, filed by attorneys from Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, alleges gross negligence on the part of the UN.

Most scientific studies point to UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the source of the epidemic.

“The filing of this lawsuit marks a critical step towards justice for Haiti and all those who have suffered and are suffering because of cholera,” said BAI Managing Attorney Mario Joseph.

“The Plaintiffs have undergone indescribable suffering as a result of cholera and have to live with the knowledge that cholera can strike again,” said attorney Brian Concannon, Jr, director of IJDH and co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “They have rights to have a Court hear their case and rights to damages that will help them go on with their lives and access clean water.”

The plaintiffs are five Haitians and Haitian-Americans whose family members died of the disease or who were infected but survived.

They are asking the court to certify the case as a class-action, which could pave the way for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Haitian-Americans to get relief.

The 67-page complaint, filed in the US federal court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the UN knew or should have known that its “reckless sanitation and waste disposal practices posed a high risk of harm to the population, and that it consciously disregarded that risk, triggering an explosive epidemic.”

Earlier this year, the UN sparked controversy when Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said such a suit against the UN was not “receivable,” citing immunity.

“We anticipate that the UN will seek to avoid responding to the evidence presented by the victims by arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case,” said Ira Kurzban, a lawyer with KKWT and a co-counsel. “We are prepared for that challenge, and are confident that the court will find that the case must proceed because the victims have a recognized right to access courts that must be protected.”

The plaintiffs seek damages for personal injury, wrongful death, emotional distress, loss of use of property and natural resources, and breach of contract, according to the complaint.