Marie* tenía 14 años y acudía a una escuela cristiana cuando conoció a Miguel, un soldado brasileño destinado en Haití como Casco Azul de la ONU. Pronto inició una relación con él. Cuando le dijo que estaba embarazada de su hijo, Miguel le aseguró que le ayudaría con el niño, pero volvió a Brasil. Marie trató de comunicarse con él vía Facebook, pero Miguel nunca respondió.
Al enterarse de que estaba embarazada, el padre de Marie la echó de casa y se fue a vivir con su hermana. Actualmente, su hijo tiene cuatro años y Marie continúa a la espera de recibir algún tipo de ayuda por parte del ejército brasileño, alguna ONG, las Naciones Unidas o el estado haitiano.… Seguir leyendo »
In April 2017, the UN Security Council approved resolution 2350, which simultaneously determined the end of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the establishment of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH). While the conclusion of the Mission in Haiti took place together with the ending of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Haiti was the only country to receive a replacement mission. Its tasks were to consolidate the justice and human rights system and complete the creation of a local police force. Surprisingly, the Security Council (SC) framed the mandate of the new mission under chapter VII of the UN Charter, a de facto postponement of Haitian sovereignty for two more years.… Seguir leyendo »
Marseille, France In late 2010, the Haitian government asked me to investigate a cholera outbreak that struck that autumn following the arrival of a United Nations peacekeeping unit. It quickly became evident that some of the peacekeepers, who had been rotating through Haiti as part of a mission started in 2004 to provide security and stability, had introduced cholera from Nepal, where the disease had been flourishing.
By scrutinizing the most affected areas and using maps to trace the disease, I demonstrated how the epidemic originated with the peacekeepers. I published my findings in a July 2011 article, and an independent scientific team confirmed my conclusions within a few months.… Seguir leyendo »
Depuis quelques mois, le virus Ebola a retenu l’attention des médias du monde entier. Il est tout à fait compréhensible qu’un nombre important d’articles de presse et de reportages qualifient l’épidémie en Afrique de l’Ouest de l’une des urgences les plus graves des temps modernes.
Mais nous ne devons pas oublier qu’une autre épidémie se poursuit de l’autre côté de l’Atlantique. Le choléra continue de créer une situation de crise en Haïti et la récente attention portée à l’épidémie d’Ebola devrait nous rappeler qu’il ne faut pas baisser la garde. Contrairement à Ebola, le choléra n’est pas un tueur systématique et peut être traité efficacement grâce à l’accès aux soins, mais il se déplace rapidement, transmis par les aliments ou l’eau contaminés.… Seguir leyendo »
The mandate of the U.N. mission in Haiti includes ensuring “individual accountability for human rights abuses and redress for victims.” Yet instead of fulfilling its obligations to the roughly 600,000 Haitians affected by a cholera outbreak it caused, the United Nations is hiding, shamefully, behind a claim of immunity. By refusing to right its own wrong, the international body is violating the principles of international accountability and human rights that it purports to promote.
For all its challenges, Haiti was free of cholera for about a century before a U.N. peacekeeping force arrived from Nepal in October 2010. Although there had been an outbreak of cholera in Nepal shortly before the troops left for Haiti, the U.N.… Seguir leyendo »
Imagine if a multinational company went to one of the world's most impoverished countries and, while saying it was there to help, contaminated the water supplies, unleashing a new disease that killed thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands more develop a hideous sickness, suffering such debilitating loss of liquid their eyes sink into their face, their skin wrinkles, their body shivers uncontrollably. Then there is a cover-up as the firm evades responsibility and, when finally taken to court, it simply refuses to play ball with the legal process.
Such a story sounds like something created in the febrile mind of a Hollywood scriptwriter, which in real life would lead to a huge and justified outcry.… Seguir leyendo »
When U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invoked diplomatic immunity last week for peacekeepers who unwittingly caused the cholera outbreak that killed nearly 8,000 Haitians, his decision looked cold-hearted. Many in Haiti and in the humanitarian community are indignant that the United Nations will face no consequences for failing to properly test soldiers from Nepal who assisted in earthquake relief efforts in 2010. The incident seems like a sign of arrogance and ineptitude on the U.N.’s part.
But sympathy for Haitians should not mask the necessity of the secretary-general’s decision. It was right as a legal matter — and as a moral one, too.… Seguir leyendo »
Last week’s decision by the United Nations to reject a claim to compensate Haiti’s half-million-plus cholera victims and their families is unconscionable and immoral. Numerous studies find that contaminated fecal matter from the U.N.’s Nepalese contingent was the source of the country’s cholera epidemic.
No one is suggesting that the asymptomatic Nepalese soldiers knew they were carrying the deadly bacteria — though if a recommendation to screen all peacekeepers before deployment was a requirement, as has been recommended, this whole tragedy could have been avoided. What the victims, legal teams and human rights activists believe is that rather than repair a broken sewage pipe, the U.N.… Seguir leyendo »
No ha sido un buen año para los cascos azules en Haití. A las acusaciones de que la epidemia de cólera que le costó la vida a más de 6.000 haitianos se habría originado en las tropas nepalesas, se añade un vídeo reciente mostrando a soldados uruguayos abusando de un adolescente haitiano. Varios políticos haitianos han exigido el retiro inmediato de los 12.000 efectivos que integran la misión.
En ese marco, el anuncio del secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, de una reducción del tamaño de la MINUSTAH es bienvenido. Un primer paso sería el volver a los niveles anteriores al terremoto de 2010, esto es, a unas 10.000 tropas.… Seguir leyendo »
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