U.S. Government protects UN from Prosecution for Cholera Epidemic

In 2013, the IJDH filed a petition in a New York district court to bring a class-action lawsuit by five Haitian victims. The IJDH is asking for compensatory damages for 8,300 victims, who died, and nearly 700,000, who became deathly ill.

The investigators found the genesis of the epidemic came from UN Nepalese soldiers in Mirebalais, who had negligently dumped their poisonous feces into a main river that connects with smaller rivers, supplying drinking water to towns in Haiti.

The US has taken a strong stance in supporting the UN's immunity from prosecution. Jen Psaki, a State Department spokesperson, said the U.S. ". . . has legally binding treaty obligations that require it to afford the UN immunity from suit . . ."
The IJDH petition said in part; the UN ". . . knew that Haiti's weak . . . sanitation made it vulnerable to waterborne diseases."

The IJDH is now asking John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, to intervene and make certain ". . . the victims . . . have their day in court . . ."

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