The first victims were living near a base housing 454 peacekeepers newly arrived United Nations Nepal, where a cholera epidemic was under way, and the waste of the base often leaked into the river. Many scientists have since argued that the base was the only plausible source of the outbreak - including the actual death toll, a study found, could be much higher than the state official figures - but UN officials have always insisted that its origins are still debated.
M .. Alston wrote that the Haiti of the United Nations cholera policy "is morally wrong, legally untenable and politically doomed." He added: "It is also quite unnecessary." Continued denial and the refusal of the organization to make reparations to the victims, he argued, "confirms a double standard that the United Nations insists that member states respect human rights while rejecting any responsibility for himself. "
He said: "It provides highly combustible fuel for those who argue that peacekeeping operations trample the rights of those protected, and it affects both the general credibility of the UN and the integrity of the Office of the Secretary General. "
M .. Alston went beyond criticizing the Department of peacekeeping operations to blame the entire United Nations system. "As the scale of the disaster became known, key international officials have carefully avoided to recognize that the epidemic had led the camp releases," he noted.
His most severe criticism was reserved for the Office of Legal Affairs of the organization, whose advice he wrote, "has been allowed to replace all other considerations that militate powerfully in favor of the search for a constructive and fair solution. " His interpretations, he said, have "prevailed over the rule of law."
M .. Alston also argued in its report that, as the New York Times reported, the eradication program cholera of the United Nations has failed. infection rates have increased every year in Haiti since 2014, the organization is struggling to raise the $ 2.27 billion it says is needed to eradicate disease . Member States No major water and sanitation projects were carried out in Haiti two pilot processing plants for wastewater treatment, he built after the epidemic quickly closed due to lack of funds donor.
in a separate internal report released days ago after being held for nearly a year, the United Nations has auditors said a quarter of the sites managed by peacekeepers with the organization stabilization Mission in Haiti, or Minustah, they had visited were still unloading their waste in public channels as late as 2014, four years after epidemic began.
"victims live in fear because the disease is still there," Mario Joseph, a lawyer for Haitian human rights leading representative cholera victims, told demonstrators in Port au-Prince last month. He added. "If the Nepalese contingent returns to defecate in the water again, they will have the disease again, only worse"
In 2011, when families of 5,000 cholera victims in Haiti petitioned the United Nations to redress his OLA simply stated their claims "inadmissible." (Mr. Alston called that argument "wholly unconvincing in legal terms.")
these families and others then sued the United Nations, including Mr. Ban and the former head MINUSTAH Edmond Mulet, in federal court in New York. (In November, Mr. Ban Mulet promoted to be his chief of staff.) The United Nations has refused to appear before the court, citing diplomatic immunity under its charter, leaving lawyers Department of justice to defend the place. . This case is now awaiting a decision of the Second Court of Appeals in New York Circuit
The relief sought by the families of the 10,000 people killed and 800,000 affected would reach $ 40 billion, Mr. Alston wrote - and this figure does not include those "certain to die and become infected in the years to come"
"Since it is almost five times the total annual budget for peacekeeping worldwide. whole, it is a figure that is naturally considered prohibitive and unrealistic, "he said But he argued." the figure of $ 40 billion should stand as a warning of the consequences that might follow if national courts are convinced that the policy of abdication is not only unacceptable but also legally unjustified. The best way to avoid this to happen is for the UN to provide an appropriate remedy. "
M .. Alston, who declined to comment on this article, submit the final report at the opening of the General Assembly in September, when the presidents, prime ministers and monarchs of almost all countries meet at UN headquarters in New York.
M. Haq said the office of the secretary-general "wanted to take this opportunity to salute this vital relationship," which he said "will be a valuable contribution the UN that we are working on a major new series of UN actions. "
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