United States: Suit Filed in Haiti Cholera Epidemic

Mar 12, 2014 | Somini Sengupta, The New York Times
View Original

A class-action lawsuit claiming to represent cholera victims in Haiti and their relatives in the United States was filed against the United Nations on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. At issue is the question of accountability for an epidemic that began in 2010 and has since claimed more than 8,000 lives. In response an earlier claim, the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said that he believed the United Nations Charter rendered the organization “absolutely immune from legal process and suit absent an express waiver.” Victims’ groups blame United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. The United Nations has pledged to help eradicate cholera from Haiti.