A broad coalition of religious, human rights and non-governmental organizations has come together in the United States to demand that the United Nations political/military mission in Haiti and the governments supporting it take responsibility for the disastrous cholera epidemic brought to Haiti in October 2011.
The group’s concerns are backed by an open letter signed by 104 members of the U.S. Congress. The letter is dated July 18, 2012 and is addressed to Susan Rice, the United States representative to the United Nations Security Council. It demands that the UN take the lead in addressing its culpability for the epidemic by facilitating the construction of clean water facilities.
The letter explains: “As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN, we believe that it is imperative for the UN to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic. UN authorities should work with Haiti’s government and the international community to confront and, ultimately, eliminate this deadly disease from Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola. A failure to act will not only lead to countless more deaths: it will undermine the crucial effort to reconstruct Haiti and will pose a permanent public health threat to the populations of neighboring nations.”
The letter continues: “Accordingly, we call upon you to urge UN authorities to play a central role in addressing the cholera crisis. First, by helping ensure that resources are in place to provide adequate treatment and prevention of the disease in the short term. Secondly, by taking the lead in helping Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola acquire the necessary funding to develop the water and sanitation infrastructure needed to effectively control the cholera epidemic.”
Similar concerns were expressed in a May 12, 2012 editorial in the New York Times and they are at the heart of a lawsuit by some 5,000 victims of the cholera epidemic that is being spearheaded by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH).
That lawsuit is gathering support in Hollywood thanks to a 27-minute documentary film ‘Baseball in the Time of Cholera’ by directors David Darg and Bryn Mooser. Ninety celebrities attended a screening of the film in Hollywood last week. Many are urging action on the issue via Twitter.
The film was screened on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 18, followed by a panel discussion of legal and medical experts (see photo). Online, it has been viewed close to 70,000 times. An online petition of the related ‘UN Deny’ campaign is gathering signatures.
The coalition includes the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, Church World Service, American Jewish World Service, the Mennonite Central Committee, Trans Africa forum, and Gender Action.
A July 18 statement by Church World Service states, “But, although international response was swift and generous after January 2010, there has not been equally urgent action to rid the country of cholera. Justice and the need for a fair chance demand that we rally around this call for improved water systems, treatment of patients and the establishment of a bi-national plan with the Haitian and Dominican governments, ministries and communities.”
You can see the full list of U.S. Congress member signatories of the July 18, 2012 letter here.
Perhaps in response to all the controversy surrounding cholera in Haiti, a new document is being discussed in committees of the United Nations, entitled ‘Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations.’ A July 18 report on the website of the Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch project of the Center for Economic Policy Research says the document has already been approved by UN’s International Law Commission.
According to Haiti’s Ministry of Health, as of July 15, 2012, 580,947 people in Haiti have been infected with cholera, of whom 7,442 have died.
International culpability for the lack of potable water supply in Haiti long pre-dates the earthquake. A hard-hitting, 100-page report by the global health agency Partners In Health was published in June 2008 and titled, ‘The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti.’ The report examined the effect of the embargo on aid to Haiti by the U.S., Canada and Europe against the government that was elected in the year 2000 with Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president.
Among other consequences, the government’s attempts to obtain loans from the Inter American Development Bank to finance potable water systems were successfully blocked by the big powers, in direct violation of the Bank’s charter.
Housing rights
Parallel to the cholera accountability campaign is a housing rights campaign that was launched on July 1. Called ‘Under Tents,’ that campaign has gathered 1,150 signatures to date on an international petition demanding that the Haitian government and its international allies take decisive action to build housing for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who were left homeless by the 2010 earthquake and are still living ‘under tents.’
Until now, details about who is receiving U.S. aid funds in Haiti and what they are doing with them, including for shelter and housing, have not been released. Now a 300-page document obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act shows that the U.S. has not built a single new house in Haiti.
The AP story also reveals:
* Of the $988 million in aid funding spent so far by the U.S., one quarter went toward debt relief. But after Haiti’s loans were paid off, the government began borrowing again: $657 million so far, largely for oil imports rather than development projects.
* Less than 12 percent of the reconstruction money sent to Haiti after the earthquake has gone toward energy, shelter, ports or other infrastructure. At least a third, $329 million, went to projects that were awarded before the 2010 catastrophe and had little to do with the recovery – such as HIV/AIDS programs.
* Half of the $1.8 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding is still in the Treasury, its disbursement stymied by an understaffed U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in the months after the quake and by a Haitian government that was barely functional for more than a year.
* Despite State Department promises to keep spending public, some members of Congress and watchdogs say they aren’t getting detailed information about how the millions are being spent, as dozens of contractors working for the U.S. government in Haiti leave a complex money trail.
In Brazil, a delegation composed of trade union and peasant organization leaders, elected legislators of the governing Workers Party, civil rights spokespeople and Haiti solidarity activists met with Brazil’s Minister of Defense on July 10 to press him to end Brazil’s participation in the UN Security Council police/military occupation regime in Haiti. A report of that meeting is here.
Members of Canada’s Parliament have been absent from their duty to monitor Canada’s aid performance in Haiti. Media coverage in Canada has been next to nonexistent. 1.
A recent article series in the Toronto Star painted a grim picture of Canada’s aid performance in that country, underlining the importance of aid program monitoring in Haiti. (See the latest article in the Star series here.)
Notes:
1. In a rare report on CBC, Radio One’s The Current broadcast a story on July 25 about the gold exploration activities of U.S. and Canadian mining companies in the north of Haiti and the consequences for the country’s future.
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