Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (A/71/367)
- The Special Rapporteur finds that scientific evidence establishes beyond reasonable doubt that the cholera epidemic, which had killed 9,145 people and infected nearly 780,000, was triggered by the arrival of peacekeepers from a region where the disease was prevalent.
- He characterizes the Organization's refusal to accept responsibility or provide a remedy as morally indefensible, legally untenable and politically counterproductive.
- He notes that cholera has infected at least 7 percent of the Haitian population, hitting the poor hardest in a country where 59 percent live below the national poverty line.
- The report calls for an apology, acknowledgement of responsibility, a private-law remedy and fair compensation, with Member States, especially the largest peacekeeping contributor, urged to support a rights-respecting solution.
Submitted under Human Rights Council resolution 26/3, this report by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, examines United Nations responsibility for the cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in October 2010, shortly after the arrival of a peacekeeping contingent from a region where the disease was prevalent. The Rapporteur states that scientific evidence now establishes beyond reasonable doubt that the peacekeeping mission triggered the epidemic, which by the time of writing had killed 9,145 people and infected nearly 780,000.
He argues that the Organization's legal position of denying responsibility, rejecting all compensation claims and refusing a claims-settlement process is morally indefensible, legally untenable and politically counterproductive, and that it undermines rather than protects the Organization's immunity and credibility. Welcoming the new approach announced in August 2016 after a draft of the report was leaked, he sets out the way forward: an apology and acknowledgement of responsibility, recognition that the claims are private-law matters requiring an appropriate remedy, fair compensation for victims and families, transparent consultation, and principles for handling similar cases in future.
How to cite
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2016, Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (A/71/367), https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/extr-me-pauvret-et-droits-de-l-homme-a71367