For those who have followed HAWG’s cholera advocacy and supported our campaign: your support has enabled our campaign to achieve what just six months ago seemed impossible. Very significant steps towards cholera justice have been taken in recent weeks. We’d like you to know just what you helped make happen:
- On September 20, 2016 at the opening of the UNGA, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed “tremendous regret and sorrow at the profound suffering of Haitians affected by cholera” and said that “time has come for a new approach to ease the plight and better their lives”
- Earlier that month the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights criticized the UN’s approach as “morally unconscionable, legally indefensible, and politically self-defeating”
A UN issued report recommended that the UN Secretariat take four steps:
- Issue an apology and an acceptance of responsibility in the name of the Secretary-General;
- Acknowledge that the claims submitted by victims are private law claims and therefore require an appropriate remedy;
- Provide adequate compensation for victims
- Ensure consultation with stakeholders in a transparent manner
The UN later announced that it is mobilizing $400 million for the new response to be delivered via a two track system. Read More