Church World Service, rights groups and NGOs hail Congressional call for UN response to Haiti cholera
Published on Church World Service website, Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Washington, D.C.--Humanitarian agency Church World Service is among a coalition of human rights groups, faith-based organizations and NGOs working for just and sustainable post-earthquake recovery in Haiti who commend a letter sent by 104 members of the U.S. Congress to Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, requesting that she urge the world body to act decisively in addressing Haiti’s cholera crisis. This important appeal was sponsored by Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and delivered to Ambassador Rice July 17, 2012.
Cholera has killed more than 7,450 Haitians and infected over 580,000 since October 2010. The situation remains critical, with nearly 40,000 new infections and 290 deaths since May of this year, according to Haitian health authorities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that cholera will persist in Haiti unless sustainable water and sanitation systems are put in place.
“Church World Service thanks all the Members of Congress who have signed this important letter. Too many tragedies have befallen Haitians in recent years: damaging floods and hurricanes, a devastating earthquake, and now - through no fault of their own - the introduction of cholera into Haitian rivers and water systems,” said Martin Shupack, CWS education and advocacy director.
“But, although international response was swift and generous after January 2010, there has not been equally urgent action to rid the country of cholera,” Shupack said. “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. The loss of so many lives is unacceptable. Appropriate authorities must ensure that no more are allowed to die,” he said.
"The United Nations has a clear responsibility to help right this terrible wrong," said Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service. "Haitians and everyone throughout the island of Hispaniola deserve their basic rights - access to clean water and a sanitation system that helps contain, not spread infectious diseases."
“Members of Congress have joined a growing chorus calling for UN authorities to work with Haiti’s government and the Haitian people to confront and ultimately eliminate cholera,” said Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, director of Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office.
According to Elaine Zuckerman, President of Gender Action, “the World Bank, a UN agency, and Inter-American Development Bank, have committed over US$ 127 million to 12 different water and sanitation and cholera programs since the earthquake. Yet by the banks’ own data, just under US$ 52 million has been disbursed. Even disbursed funds are unlikely to have been spent yet on water and sanitation infrastructure needed to curb the cholera epidemic, let alone on assisting cholera victims. The crisis continues.”
Zuckerman says that “what is needed is not just more promised money, but delivered projects to halt the spread of cholera and treat its victims.”
The Congressional letter cites the March 2012 acknowledgment by UN Special Envoy to Haiti and Former U.S. President Bill Clinton that the UN’s actions were the “proximate cause” of the epidemic, and emphasizes that the UN must take action to control the outbreak, which infects 600 more people each day, according to the Haitian Government.
The letter also echoes demands made by 5,000 Haitian victims of cholera who filed claims with the UN in November 2011, seeking investments in water and sanitation infrastructure to control the epidemic. Since that lawsuit was filed, editorials in the New York Times and Washington Post have also called for the UN and the international community to take responsibility swiftly in ending the cholera epidemic.
Nicole Lee, President of TransAfrica Forum, commends “the over one hundred Members of Congress who have added their voices to those of the Haitian people and so many others who are calling on the United Nations to fight and ultimately contain the cholera epidemic in Haiti. The UN must prioritize treating the sick and preventing the continuing spread of cholera, and the only way to ensure that Haitians do not remain vulnerable to cholera is to build adequate water and sanitation infrastructure. The UN should provide leadership and funding to make that goal a reality."
“Congress’ call to action reflects a growing consensus that the UN has a moral and legal responsibility to address Haiti’s cholera epidemic, and that it must do so urgently before more lives are lost,” said Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and Counsel for the victims. “To do anything less would undermine the UN’s core missions of promoting human rights and fighting disease,” Concannon added.
Geneticists have precisely matched the epidemic strain in Haiti to a particularly virulent, deadly cholera strain found in Nepal in the summer of 2010. Independent scientific studies have established that this cholera was brought to Haiti by Nepalese troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and that their waste disposal practices at their base allowed the bacteria to contaminate Haiti’s largest river system.
The letter was also signed by Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), James Moran (D-VA), Ed Towns (D-NY), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Pete Stark (D-CA), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Corrine Brown (D-FL), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Hansen Clarke (D-MI), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Michael Honda (D-CA), Lacy Clay (D-MO), John Lewis (D-GA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), John Olver (D-MA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Bob Filner (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), William Keating (D-MA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Sam Farr (D-CA), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Karen Bass (D-CA), Albio Sires (D-NJ), John Tierney (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Laura Richardson (D-CA), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Bennie Thompson (D-GA), Janice Hahn (D-CA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Al Green (D-TX), Melvin Watt (D-NC), Barney Frank (D-MA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS), Rosa Delauro (D-CT), Jared Polis (D-CO), Danny Davis (D-IL), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Michael Michaud (D-ME), Gene Green (D-TX), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Peter Defazio (D-OR), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Steve Rothman (D-NJ), David Cicilline (D-RI), Andre Carson (D-IN), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Charles Gonzalez (D-TX), Ron Kind (D-WI), Lucille Royal-Allard (D-CA), David Price (D-NC), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Robert Brady (D-PA), James Langevin (D-RI), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-WA), Susan Davis (D-CA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Brian Higgins (D-NY), James Himes (CT), Terri Sewell (D-AL), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Ed Pastor (D-AZ), and Cedric Richmond (D-LA)
The text of the July 17 letter to Ambassador Rice is here. The original letter to Ambassador Rice is available at : http://ijdh.org/archives/26647.Click here to download the Haiti advocate coalition’s group press release.
Appendix:
UN 'should take blame for Haiti cholera' - U.S. House members
By Mark Doyle, International Development Correspondent, BBC July 20, 2012
More than 100 Democrats from the US House of Representatives have called on the UN to take responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti. It is the latest twist in the allegation that UN peacekeepers unwittingly introduced the disease.
The United Nations' envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has accepted UN soldiers may have brought cholera. But with more than 7,000 deaths so far, the UN said tackling the disease is more important than attributing blame.
Outbreak source In a letter to the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, the 104 members of Congress stated clearly: "Cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN." They call on Ms Rice to pressure the UN to "confront and ultimately eliminate" the disease.
The letter says the UN should help Haiti mobilise enough money to build water and sewage systems to tackle the disease. While members of Congress often weigh in on foreign policy issues like Iran or Israel, it is unusual for so many members to sign a letter about a small Caribbean state like Haiti.
I gathered strong circumstantial evidence that UN peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti during a visit late last year. Mr Clinton has acknowledged that UN soldiers were the "proximate cause" of the cholera. But UN officials shy away from taking full blame or issuing an apology. They say tackling the disease is more important than apportioning blame.
They may also be reticent because Haitian and US lawyers are trying to sue the UN for financial compensation for the victims of cholera.
U.S. lawmakers press for action on cholera in Haiti
By Deborah Sontag, New York Times, Saturday, July 21, 2012
In a letter sent this week, 104 members of the United States House of Representatives urged Susan E. Rice, American ambassador to the United Nations, to press the international organization to take the lead in responding to cholera in Haiti given the strong suspicions that its troops imported the disease. “As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the U.N., we believe that it is imperative for the U.N. to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic,” said the letter from John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, and the other representatives.
Since mid-April, cholera has killed an additional 400 Haitians and sickened 50,000 more, according to Haitian government statistics. This brings the official death toll to 7,442 and the caseload to 580,947 since the first cases were detected in October 2010. The letter calls for the United Nations to push harder to find financing for water and sanitation systems to control the epidemic. (End of news article)
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