Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti

 

13th Annual Haitian-American Unity Parade, Mattapan Square / Blue Hill Ave

WHEN  Sunday, May 19, 2013
WHERE   Mattapan Square / Blue Hill Ave
TIME   1 PM
INFO  617-298-2976

18th Annual Haitian Flag Raising Ceremony, Boston City Hall Plaza

 

WHEN   Friday, May 17, 2013
WHERE   Boston City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
TIME   12 PM to 2 PM
INFO    617-298-2976

 

 

 

 

 

 

Position Description

IJDH seeks a full-time Kreyol-speaking Communications Coordinator for our office in Boston.  We seek a dynamic people-person with strong communications skills. This individual will:

• Work with the IJDH team and the BAI team in Haiti to gather and write-up information on our work, including legal cases, outreach activities, community advocacy, training and events;
• Coordinate the public dissemination of information via the IJDH website, Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, press releases and mass e-mails;
• Provide information for internal purposes such as fundraising and grant reporting;
• Work as part of a team in Boston, supervised by the Development and Operations Manager;
• Travel to BAI in Port-au-Prince periodically, possibly for as much as a week every quarter, with potential travel to other areas as dictated by BAI work;
• Participate in other aspects of our work, including fundraising and community outreach, as needed;
• Supervise interns and volunteers as assigned.

Qualifications

• Spoken fluency in Haitian Kreyol required;
• Ability to read French required; ability to write and speak French a plus;
• Ability to write effectively in English and to proofread in English;
• Strong knowledge of Haitian culture;
• Commitment to social justice and human rights;
• Bachelors degree required;
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail;
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently;
• Ability to take responsibility for a project and get it done well;
• 1-2 years work experience a plus;
• Availability to travel to Haiti;
• Availability for occasional evening or weekend events (roughly 10-20 per year).

This is a full-time 40 hour/week position with health care benefits and four weeks annual paid time off.  The position will pay roughly $15-17/hour, depending on experience.  Note that we would consider redesigning the role for a candidate with significant experience above and beyond the requirements listed here.

To apply, please submit a resume with a cover letter describing how your skills, experience and interests make you a strong candidate for this position. E-mail these to Kathy Kelly at kathy@ijdh.org, with “Communications Coordinator” in the subject line or send to IJDH, 666 Dorchester Ave, Boston, MA 02127, Attn: Communications Coordinator. For more information on IJDH, please go to http://www.ijdh.org.

About Us

The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and its Haiti-based partner, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), have over 17 years of demonstrated success enforcing Haitians’ human rights, in Haiti and abroad. We work in four areas: 1) impact litigation that opens the doors of Haitian, international and U.S. courts to precedent-setting human rights cases; 2) documentation that provides public officials, human rights advocates and grassroots activists the reliable information they need to speak up for human rights in Haiti; 3) transnational grassroots advocacy that compels governments and powerful institutions in Haiti and abroad to respect Haitians’ human rights; and 4) systemic capacity building that develops a corps of Haitian human rights lawyers and advocates trained to fight for sustainable change in their country.

IJDH is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer.

 

By Lauren Carasik, Common Dreams
May 13, 2013

Advocates for over 5,000 victims of cholera in Haiti put the UN on notice that they intend to file suit in a national court if the UN continues its refusal to provide compensation for its negligence in introducing cholera to the country. Haiti’s first cholera epidemic in over a century compounded the misery in a country reeling from the devastating 2010 earthquake that ravaged its already vulnerable health and sanitation system. As of this month, the epidemic has caused incalculable suffering – the death toll from cholera exceeds 8,100, and over 654,000 Haitians have been sickened.  Despite multiple scientific studies that have consistently attributed the cause of the outbreak of cholera in Haiti to UN troops from Nepal and the UN’s negligent waste disposal system, the UN is claiming that it is immune from claims.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux submitted a claim on behalf of cholera victims for relief and reparations to the UN on November 3, 2011,requesting that the UN upgrade the national water and sanitation infrastructure, provide compensation to victims for their losses, and issue a public apology. For more than a year, the UN refused to formally respond to the claim. Finally, in a  letter dated February 21, 2013, the UN dismissed these claims, asserting that they are “not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations,” and justifying immunity on the theory that “consideration of these claims would necessarily include a review of political and policy matters.”  Despite this assertion, the UN declined to provide any real legal justification for its avoidance of responsibility, which lawyers for the claimants characterize as flimsy. As advocates note, the negligent disposal of waste hardly constitutes “political and policy matters.”  In addition to claiming immunity, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pointedly declined to accept or deny the UN’s responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of its culpability.

For an institution whose mission includes upholding the rule of law and alleviating poverty, the UN’s conduct in administering and overseeing its troops’ “stabilization mission” in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH, has been deplorable.  The Status of Forces Agreement between the UN and the Haitian government required the UN to institute a Standing Claims Commission to resolve civil claims against MINUSTAH troops. Despite the presence of MINUSTAH troops in Haiti since 2004, the UN never set up the Commission, depriving Haitians of any mechanism to redress grievances. The UN’s refusal to accept responsibility for cholera occurs against a backdrop of impunity for misconduct perpetrated by MINUSTAH troops in Haiti, such as sexual misconduct, including Uruguayan soldiers whose sexual assault of a young man was recorded on video, and credible charges against Pakistani and Sri Lankan troops.  Critics note that the presence of MINUSTAH remains controversial among Haitians, and that the $648 million per year budget for the UN peacekeeping mission could instead be repurposed to fund two years of the cholera elimination initiative.

Aside from the legal imperative, the UN has a moral obligation to remedy the harm it caused in Haiti.  In tacit recognition of its obligation to help ameliorate the devastating impact of the cholera epidemic, Ban Ki-moon vowed five months ago to “use every opportunity”to generate the resources necessary to end cholera in Haiti.  Despite its laudatory pronouncement, fundraising efforts have yielded only a fraction of the necessary money to combat cholera, a shortfall exacerbate other failures in the flow of aid to Haiti - more than a third of the $5.4 billion that the international community pledged for reconstruction has not been paid.  According to a report issued by Physicians for Haiti, the UN also refuses to implement the recommendations of its own experts to prevent a recurrence, despite the fact that three of the recommendations could be implemented at either no or minimal cost to the UN.

Advocates notified the UN in a response letterdated May 7 that if there was not progress toward a reasonable resolution of these claims, they will file suit in a national court, convinced that the law is on their side. As the UN evades responsibility, the economic and human costs of delaying remediation of the epidemic are incalculable, and cholera continues to inflict preventable suffering and deaths. Although cholera has receded temporarily, cases between November through February were higher than the same period last year.  Moreover, the rainy season is looming, which typically ushers in a spike in cases.  Experts note that a well-managed effort is required to completely eliminate the epidemic. Haiti’s vulnerability to a epidemic emanating from water-borne disease was not a surprise, nor is the impoverished country’s inability to vanquish cholera on its own. While the Haitian government lacks the institutional and financial resources to address this crisis, the UN has both the legal and moral obligation to provide reparations and to finance improvements to the weak health and sanitation infrastructure that impede the eradication of cholera on Haitian soil.  This UN’s response to the cholera crisis it caused demonstrates why a lawsuit is critical:  both to force the UN to take the steps necessary to control the epidemic, and to set standards of accountability and deterrence, by making the price of future malfeasance unpalatable.

Lauren Carasik is a Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic and the Legal Services Clinic at Western New England University School of Law.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

IUPUI Newsroom
May 3, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS — A finalist for one of the world’s most prestigious human rights awards will deliver the 2013 commencement address for graduates of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Haitian attorney Mario Joseph will deliver the address during the ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 11, in the Sagamore Ballroom of the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. The school is awarding three Doctor of Juridical Science degrees, 23 Master of Laws degrees and 265 Doctor of Jurisprudence degrees.

Called “Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer” by The New York Times, Joseph has led Haiti’s leading public interest law firm, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Port-au-Prince, since 1996.

During his more than 20 years of human rights work, Joseph has spearheaded historic cases, including the Raboteau Massacre trial in 2000, hailed as one of the most important human rights cases ever in the Western Hemisphere, and Yvon Neptune v. Haiti, the first Haiti case ever decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

“It is an incredible honor and privilege to have as our graduation speaker someone who is a giant in the worldwide fight for human rights and who brings great honor and pride to the legal profession,” said IU McKinney School of Law Dean Gary R. Roberts. “(Joseph) truly is an inspiration and will make this a special day.”

The jury for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders announced Joseph as one of three finalists on April 24. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Geneva in October.

The Martin Ennals Award is known as “the award of the human rights movement” because its winner is determined by a jury consisting of 10 of the world’s leading human rights non-government organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Human Rights and Human Rights First.  The award is presented annually to an individual who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means, and whose exemplary work has put him or her at great personal risk.

As managing attorney of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, Joseph has fought bravely and successfully for victims of human rights abuses in a range of politically sensitive cases. He has pioneered a “victim-centered approach,” combining traditional legal representation with capacity building and political strategies that advance the interests of the clients’ organizations and communities and maximize cases’ positive impact on broader Haitian society.

About the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

With more than 1,000 students, IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law is the largest law school in Indiana. Located in downtown Indianapolis on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus,  the school has enjoyed great success in preparing students for legal careers for more than 100 years, as evidenced by the presence of alumni in the judiciary and other branches of government, business, civic leadership and law practice. The school’s 10,000 graduates reside in every state in the nation and several foreign countries. More information is available at indylaw.indiana.edu.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

 

On May 11, Mario Joseph delivered the commencement address for the graduates of the McKinney School of Law.

I would like to say “Bonjou”- hello in Haitian Creole- and “Mesi”- thank you- to Dean Roberts for inviting me to address you today, and for making me an honorary member of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law class of 2013.

Bonjou and Mesi as well to my friend and collaborator Professor Fran Quigley.

Bonjou to all the other distinguished faculty.

To the Graduates of the class of 2013, bonjou, and felisitasyon-yo–congratulations.

And last but not least, a big bonjou and a “chapo ba” – a tip of the hat, to all the parents, siblings, significant others, relatives and friends of the members of the class of 2013. In my country, we have a saying: men anpil chay pa lou: many hands make the load light. We know that it takes many hands to carry the load of building a road, a house, a school. But it also takes men anpil- many hands—to create a law school graduate. So while we are celebrating the hard work, accomplishment, intelligence and promise of today’s graduates, let us take a minute to thank those who helped them get here. Chapo ba, again.

You have probably all heard enough talk about rights here at the Law School, but I will ask you to indulge me in one more talk, this time about the rights of the people who really need our help, the most vulnerable. When you think about my country, H
aiti, I expect most of you picture misery:  a country that is poor and that has endless bad luck with natural disasters. When I look at my country, I see the same misery you do, but I do not see it caused by a lack of resources or bad luck. I see Haiti’s misery caused by a lack of rights enforcement. The inability to enforce rights keeps individual Haitians from earning, learning and voting their way out of poverty. It makes my country so vulnerable to stress that acts of nature that cause minor damage elsewhere cause catastrophes in Haiti. Even our 2010 earthquake was a rights enforcement disaster. Since then the earth has shook harder in Chile, in Japan and other places, causing a tiny fraction of the estimated 200,000 deaths that Haiti’s earthquake caused. In Haiti many building- including my office and my house—suffered damage but did not collapse. Most of the buildings that did collapse on their occupants were constructed below building code standards on hillsides so steep that construction was, in principle, prohibited.

You probably have not thought of today’s graduation as the culmination of years of rights enforcement. But you would not have even had the opportunity to deploy your hard work and intelligence without that enforcement. Like you, and me, my siblings and friends growing up in the village of Verrettes had the universally recognized human right to free, universal public education. But unlike you or me, their education rights were not enforced, so they did not go to school and today most of them cannot read. They are excluded, for life, from the immense economic, social and political advantages of literacy.

Today’s ceremony is a fulfillment of a legal contract. You complied with years of financial, academic and social obligations to the McKinney School of Law, and in return the school is obligated to present  you today with a really, really nice piece of paper. In order to fulfill your contractual obligations, you relied on the enforceability of a host of other contracts, with student loan lenders, employers, landlords, health insurance providers and others. You were protected from harm by your ability to enforce personal injury claims. You honed your skills and broadened your perspective in discussions protected by your right to free expression. Your civil rights protected you from discrimination and persecution. You stayed healthy because your right to potable water was enforced. So when I look out today over the Class of 2013, I see impressive individual accomplishment, but I also see impressive rights enforcement.

When I look out during visits to my family in my home village of Verrettes, I do not see rights enforcement. I see fertile rice fields that were taken from hard-working peasants by the dictatorships of my youth. I see women unable to enforce child support and alimony, which condemns them and their children to another generation of poverty. I pass houses where people who have been imprisoned or killed for organizing to demand economic, political and social rights once lived.  I see the irrigation ditch, where my drinking water came from when I was a child, now contaminated with deadly cholera introduced to Haiti through the negligent and reckless acts of UN Peacekeepers.

Of course you have seen this same dynamic in Indianapolis. In your clinics, you initially saw your clients as people who needed help enforcing specific rights- civil and constitutional rights for criminal defendants, immigration, disability or contract rights for others. But you soon learned that for most of them their arrival in your clinic was the product of a long and complex series of rights unenforcement. Some of you learned similar lessons studying or working on international issues, or examining the social impact of environmental or healthcare policies. All of you studied the often painful, but inexorable movement to extend the promise of your Declaration of Independence- that “all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights” to all members of your society.

When lawyers talk about rights, we usually talk about rights holders and duty bearers. In my experience, it is useful to enlarge this discussion to include another category, that of Rights Enforcers. By Rights Enforcers I mean not just judges and police. I mean the broader community of actors who help develop the conditions that allow rights enforcement for the most vulnerable in Haiti and in the United States. Lawyers are Rights Enforcers, of course, but so are policy makers, voters, journalists, donors to charity, consumers and many others.

The piece of paper you are receiving today is not only really, really nice, it is also really, really powerful.  That paper and the hard-won quality education that it represents open the door to a highly privileged career for you. If the class of 2013 follows the footsteps of previous classes, some of you will spend your careers directly enforcing the rights of the most vulnerable, working with public interest organizations here in Indiana, and throughout the U.S. and the world. Others will have the opportunity to advance rights enforcement for the most vulnerable through public service in Indianapolis at the State House and City-County Building, or in Washington on Capitol Hill.

Most of you will spend your career helping to enforce the rights of clients who have the ability to pay for that enforcement. Thanks to your skills and the education you received at McKinney School of Law, those clients will likely get their money’s worth. You will keep your clients in a position where they can continue to enforce their rights, and your clients will keep you in a position to support yourselves and your families.

As you continue along these different career paths, I would ask you to keep in mind the most vulnerable, in Indianapolis, in Haiti and elsewhere, and to keep in mind all the ways that you can serve as a highly-qualified and sorely-needed Rights Enforcer. Do what you can professionally, through your primary work or pro-bono projects. But also think of all the other ways you can be a Rights Enforcer, as a voter, as a community leader, a donor, a consumer, a member of a church or civic organization. In all these roles our basic legal skills–critical analysis of facts and law, and skilled communication of a position – are transferable to a range of tasks. Also remember that being a Rights Enforcer requires us to sometimes challenge powerful or popular institutions, and even our own beliefs.

I cannot pass up the opportunity of addressing such an educated audience to talk some about my country and yours. The most powerful country in the world has an enormous influence on daily life in Haiti, and in so many places like it around the world. Much of this influence is positive, but too often your country’s policies in Haiti are not consistent with our best interests or your highest ideals. Your country has undermined and overthrown our Presidents, and replaced them with tyrants. Your food aid policies, as President Clinton has conceded, often help your farmers with their surplus, but put Haiti’s farmers out of business, increasing our hunger.

But the American people can and do correct these policies, upholding your ideals and serving as Rights Enforcers for the people of Haiti and places like it. A good example is the case of my political prisoner client, Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a priest who was imprisoned illegally by a dictatorship in 2005 for speaking out against the repression of the poor. Because your country supported the dictatorship, your State Department supported Fr. Jean-Juste’s imprisonment. Your Embassy told journalists and Members of Congress that his incarceration was legal when it was not, and claimed his detention was humane, when in fact Fr. Jean-Juste was suffering from untreated leukemia.

I did my work as a lawyer for Fr. Jean-Juste, and although that should have ended the illegal detention, it did not. Human rights groups in Haiti and the U.S. denounced the persecution, but that did not work either. What finally worked was a group of people from Indiana, mostly university students and members of churches with relationships in Haiti, who got together and resolved to bring the injustice to the attention of Senator Richard Lugar. They met with Senator Lugar, then the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and like the President at the time, a Republican. After the meeting the Senator wrote to Haiti’s Prime Minister about the case on January 19, 2006. On January 29, Fr. Jean-Juste was released from prison and flown to Miami for medical treatment.

An example of where we need more Rights Enforcers today is the prosecution of Jean-Claude Duvalier, one of the last century’s most notorious tyrants, who returned to Haiti in 2011. I represent eight victims of the Duvalier regime, most of them inmates in the regime’s horrid political prisons. The stories they tell are bone-chilling. Every major human international rights organization has called for an effective prosecution of Duvalier. But my government, led by a President elected in controversial and deeply flawed elections and including many Cabinet members who are the sons of Duvalier Ministers, is resisting the prosecution. Your government, out of support for my President has refused to support this prosecution, despite many requests.

In conclusion, I bid you a big “bienvini” or “welcome”. First, bienvini to the ranks of law graduates and to the legal profession, which will provide you with a lifetime of privileges. But also, bienvini to the ranks of Rights Enforcers, which will provide you with a lifetime of opportunities to help those who really need your help.

Chapo ba, to the Class of 2013! And Mesi!

 

 

 

By Daniel Dareus,  Radio Vision 2000
May 9, 2013

Au total plus de 650 000 personnes ont été touchées par le choléra en Haïti depuis 2010. | AFP/THONY BELIZAIRE.

Les victimes de l’épidémie de choléra qui sévit en Haïti depuis plus de deux ans, et attribuée par certains experts à des casques bleus, ont donné mercredi 8 mai soixante jours aux Nations unies pour obtenir un accord d’indemnisation, sous peine de procès. Au total plus de 650 000 personnes ont été touchées et 8 100 personnes sont mortes depuis octobre 2010.

L’Institut pour la justice et la démocratie en Haïti (IJDH), basé aux Etats-Unis, affirme représenter à présent plus de 8 000 victimes et familles de victimes. Son directeur, Brian Concannon, précise que la plainte intentée à l’ONU pourrait être déposée à New York et éventuellement en Europe. En cas de procès, l’IJDH demanderait des milliards de dollars de compensations :  100 000 dollars pour chaque mort, et 50 000 dollars pour chaque personne infectée par l’épidémie.« Nous attendons une réponse rapide et adéquate de l’ONU. Immunité ne veut pas dire impunité », a ajouté M. Concannon.

CAMPAGNE POUR ÉRADIQUER L’ÉPIDÉMIE

Mi-février, l’ONU avait rejeté une telle demande d’indemnisation, faisant valoir « aux représentants des demandeurs que cette demande n’était pas recevable au titre de la section 29 de la Convention sur les privilèges et immunités des Nations unies » de 1946, selon le porte-parole de l’organisation, Martin Nesirky.

En juin 2011, une étude publiée par les centres américains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (CDC) avait conclu que le choléra avait été introduit en Haïti par des casques bleus népalais. Mais l’ONU n’a jamais reconnu sa responsabilité dans l’épidémie, estimant impossible de déterminer formellement l’origine de la maladie. M. Nesirky avait aussi souligné en février les efforts déployés par les Nations unies pour traiter l’épidémie et améliorer les infrastructures sanitaires en Haïti.

En décembre, l’ONU a lancé un appel de fonds de 2,2 milliards de dollars afin de financer une campagne pour éradiquer l’épidémie. Ce programme, sur dix ans, sera centré sur l’amélioration des conditions sanitaires, la fourniture d’eau potable et une nouvelle méthode orale de vaccination. (http://www.lemonde.fr)

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

Associated Press
May 10, 2013

UNITED NATIONS – A Boston-based human rights group said Wednesday it will sue the United Nations in 60 days if the world body does not agree to compensate Haitian cholera victims, apologize for introducing the disease through its peacekeeping force and launch a major effort to improve sanitation.

Lawyers for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said they hoped to be able to settle with the United Nations but are ready to go to court in New York if that fails.

The announcement was the group’s response to a U.N. letter in February saying it is legally immune and was not responsible for the cholera outbreak, which has sickened nearly 500,000 people and killed more than 7,750 since October 2010.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti cites independent studies suggesting that the disease was inadvertently brought to Haiti by a U.N. battalion from Nepal. A local contractor failed to properly sanitize the waste of a U.N. base, and the bacteria leaked into a tributary of one of Haiti’s biggest rivers.

Haiti’s cholera epidemic followed a Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that killed 316,000 people and displaced more a million.

Brian Concannon, the institute’s director, said that if there is no settlement, the institute will take the U.N. to court in 60 days. The institute will probably sue in New York state court initially.

The institute is seeking a minimum of $100,000 for each bereaved family and $50,000 for each cholera survivor. It has at least 8,000 people ready to join the lawsuit, Concannon said.

By Makini Brice, Counsel & Heal 
May 9, 2013

Lawyers from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti have issued the United Nations with an ultimatum: either start talks for a compensation claim within 60 days, or the international organization will be taken to court to the tune of billions of dollars.

The Associated Press reports that Haiti has been struck by a cholera epidemic since 2010, shortly after a devastating earthquake rocked the island nation, killing 316,000 people and leaving a million more displaced. Shortly afterwards, Haiti was ravaged by cholera. Because the country had been free of cholera for 200 years, the citizens of Haiti had no immunity to the disease. As a result, the cholera epidemic has been so severe that, at one point, it was infecting one person a minute.

Independent studies have traced the strain of cholera to a United Nations camp located by the central city of Mirebalais. According to the Huffington Post UK, cholera is endemic to the southeastern Asian country of Nepal and, before sending soldiers to Haiti, the United Nations did not screen them for cholera. Lawyers also claim that the United Nations did not properly manage waste from the Nepalese camp, even dumping it directly into the Artibonite River, a major river that served as a water supply. The United Nations has never accepted responsibility for the cholera epidemic, though the organization did announce a $2.27 billion initiative to remove cholera from Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic. Lawyers say that is not enough, particularly because the United Nations is only ponying up 1 to 2 percent of the funds.

AFP reports that the lawyers are seeking $100,000 for the family of each victim that died from cholera and $50,000 for each live victim. With about 8,000 living victims and 8,100 families related to victims who had died from the epidemic, the lawsuit could mean billions of dollars to the United Nations. The lawyers say that they will file the suit in New York state, but they believe that the United Nations will move to have it tried in the federal government.

The move is an unusual one, because national courts typically do not try crimes from the United Nations. In general, because the United Nations claims “absolute immunity”, the United Nations examines its own acts with claims boards and tribunals. However, because the United Nations said in February that a complaint from the Haitian victims’ lawyers was “non-receivable”, the victims argue that the United Nations is violating international law. Because international human rights law says that all people have access to a court or remedy, the victims of the Haitian cholera epidemic argue that national court is the only way that can be achieved.

If the United Nations does not start talks with the victims’ lawyer for compensation, the organization may be opening the door to be tried in national courts. According to the BBC, the United Nations has been relatively silent on the matter, indicating that it does not want to make the wrong move.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

COMMISSION INTERAMÉRICAINE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME
May 9, 2013

Ce rapport a été établi dans le cadre du Mémorandum d’accord intervenu entre la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme (CIDH), le Fonds desNations Unies pourl’enfance (UNICEF), et le Haut‐commissariat aux droits de l’homme (HCDH). L’établissement etla publication de ce rapport a été possible grâce à l’appui financier de l’UNICEF, de l’HCDH, du Gouvernement italien et de la Fondation Open Society Institute. La Commission voudrait remercier le consultant, Juan Faroppa, pour avoir élaboré ce rapport de même que rendre hommage aux travaux préparatoires effectués par le consultant Paulo de Mesquita Neto ainsi qu’à la contribution de la consultante Veronica Gomez.

 

Click HERE to see the Original Report

Radio-Canada
May 8, 2013

L’Institut pour la justice et la démocratie en Haïti (IJDH), basé aux États-Unis, a donné à l’ONU 60 jours pour indemniser les victimes du choléra dans le pays antillais. Autrement, l’ONU sera poursuivie en justice par l’organisme qui affirme représenter 8000 victimes et leurs familles.

Au total, plus de 650 000 personnes ont été touchées et 8100 personnes sont mortes depuis le début de l’épidémie, en octobre 2010.

En juin 2011, une étude publiée par les Centres américains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (CDC) avait conclu que le choléra avait été introduit en Haïti par des Casques bleus népalais.

Mais l’ONU n’a pas reconnu sa responsabilité dans l’épidémie, estimant qu’il est impossible de déterminer formellement l’origine de la maladie.

Le directeur de l’IJDH, Brian Concannon, a indiqué que la plainte intentée contre l’ONU serait déposée à New York si les Nations unies ne répondaient pas avant la date limite. Elle pourrait également être déposée en Europe.

Les avocats de l’organisme ont dit toutefois espérer pouvoir en venir à une entente avec l’ONU.

L’IJDH veut réclamer 100 000 $ pour chaque mort, et 50 000 $ pour chaque personne infectée par l’épidémie.

En février, l’ONU avait rejeté une telle demande d’indemnisation, faisant valoir « aux représentants des demandeurs que cette demande n’était pas recevable au titre de la section 29 de la Convention sur les privilèges et immunités des Nations unies » de 1946, selon le porte-parole de l’organisation, Martin Nesirky.

Ce à quoi M. Concannon a rétorqué : « Immunité ne veut pas dire impunité ».

En décembre, l’ONU a lancé un appel de fonds de 2,2 milliards de dollars afin de financer une campagne pour éradiquer le choléra en Haïti. Ce programme, sur dix ans, sera centré sur l’amélioration des conditions sanitaires, la fourniture d’eau potable et une nouvelle méthode orale de vaccination.

L’épidémie de choléra s’est déclarée en Haïti après séisme dévastateur du 12 janvier 2010, une catastrophe qui a fait 316 000 victimes et forcé plus d’un million de personnes à quitter leur maison.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press
May 8, 2013

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 — For killing 8,000 people in Haiti by UN Peacekeeping’s introduction of cholera, according to the lawyers who filed claims and are now prepared to sue, the UN’s response has been a short letter in December 2011 and a dismissal of claims in February 2013.

  In a letter just filed with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s lawyer Patricia O’Brien, the claimants’ lawyers give the UN sixty day before filing suit. (Inner City Press put the letter online, here, just after the 2 pm embargo.)

  Inner City Press asked them if they intend to sue in the European Court of Human Rights, where a recent decision lays the groundwork for such a case. Ira Kurzban said one case in the United States, and another in an undisclosed venue in Europe.

  The chief of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, hasrepeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press’ questions including if he has implemented any safeguards at all, to try to ensure not bringing disease to yet another country.

  On Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Brian Concannon of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti is he is aware of any safeguards implemented by the UN. 

  Now Ban’s lawyer Patricia O’Brien, who unlike her predecessor Nicolas Michel does not hold press conferences or take questions, is said to be headed to Geneva, to represent Ireland there. Would a new top UN lawyer change anything? The sixty day deadline seems solid.

  And what about the rule of law? Concannon said he worked on the issue, for the UN in Haiti, back in the 1990s. Now, he said, when the UN gives trainings in Haiti, people laugh at them, after the dismissal of the cholera claims.

  And yet under Ladsous UN Peacekeeping is poised for a new mission in Mali, and a new Intervention Battalion in the Eastern Congo. What could go wrong? Watch this site.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

By Dr Rosa Freedman, The HuffingtonPost
May 9, 2013

The United Nations has been given an ultimatum - pay compensation to individuals affected by the cholera outbreak in Haiti or be brought before a national court. If it goes that far, this may be the first time that the UN is forced to settle a legal claim through a domestic court. The Organisation ought to be seriously concerned about the outcome of these claims. If it decides not to pay the compensation within 60 days then the path may be paved for national courts to hear future cases involving the UN.

In October 2010, the UN deployed a group of Nepalese troops to Haiti. Those soldiers formed part of an ongoing peacekeeping operation in Haiti. Despite it being well known that Nepal has high incidents of cholera, none of the troops were tested for cholera prior to entering Haiti. On 21st October 2010, cholera broke out in Haiti for the first time in 50 years. Within the first 30 days,Haitian authorities recorded almost 2,000 deaths from cholera. In July 2011, the epidemic infected at a pace of one person every minute. Epidemiologists have been able to match the exact strain of cholera in Haiti to that found in Nepal. Unusually for the spread of infectious diseases, the cholera outbreak has been proven to be directly attributable to UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal.

Claims were filed against the UN on behalf of thousands of individuals affected by the cholera outbreak in Haiti. Not only did the UN fail to screen Nepalese soldiers for cholera, it also failed to manage the waste from the peacekeepers’ camp. Human waste infected the Artibonite River – Haiti’s most important and most relied-upon river.

National courts have long-understood that they cannot hear cases brought against the United Nations. The Organisation has relied upon the doctrine of ‘absolute immunity’. Instead, as a counterbalance, the UN sets up its own tribunals or claims boards to settle individuals’ disputes with the Organisation. Those mechanisms have dealt with employment disputes, property damage, and other private law claims against the UN or its staff. The Organisation effectively is its own judge and jury in such cases. It determines whether or not it is responsible and, if so, the remedy that is awarded. Although those mechanisms have their own problems, not least in terms of the UN’s accountability, they do provide a way for individuals to seek recourse against the UN.

The individuals affected by the cholera outbreak in Haiti have been refused access even to the UN’s own mechanisms. The Organisation has classified the claims as ‘not receivable’ by the UN’s local claims board. It insists that these are not private law claims but rather ones requiring political or policy review. As a result, those individuals have no access to a court and no access to a potential remedy.

Under international human rights law, all individuals have the rights to access a court and to a remedy. Cases have previously been brought on the basis that the bar to national courts hearing cases involving the UN violates those rights. In all previous cases, national courts have ruled that there has been no violation of these rights because individuals can access alternative mechanisms, such as UN tribunals or local claims boards. Yet it is clear in this situation that the individuals affected by the cholera outbreak in Haiti are not able to access a court of an alternative UN mechanism. Without such access, they cannot realise their right to a remedy.

The scene is then set for a human-rights based challenge to the UN’s absolute immunity from cases being brought to national courts. The ball, then, is in the UN’s court. It can either pay compensation to the individuals affected by the cholera outbreak, or it can take the gamble that a successful challenge to its immunity will open the door for a wholly new approach to how the UN is held responsible for its actions. If it chooses the latter, then the UN will only have itself to blame when the entire nature of the game changes on the back of this one case.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

 

TIME
May 9, 2013

Egypt NGO Law — The U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has warned that Egypt’s new civil society law betrays the ideals of the 2011 revolution and risks turning the country into an authoritarian state, notes Reuters. The draft law, supported by the Muslim Brotherhood‘s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), imposes funding restrictions on non-governmental organizations and requires advance permission for many activities, which critics see as a threat to freedom of assembly. “This current draft law… risks placing civil society under the thumb of security ministries which have a history of abusing human rights and an interest in minimizing scrutiny,” said Pillay. The FJP has said “the bill is still under discussion and that it will give NGOs freedom and meet the needs of society,” according to Reuters.

Cholera Epidemic — Haiti’s cholera victims have threatened to sue the U.N. after accusing it of negligently allowing peacekeepers to pollute the country’s water with cholera, reports the BBC. The country’s cholera outbreak began in 2010 near a camp for U.N. peacekeepers, taking the lives of around 8,000 people and infecting hundreds of thousands. U.N. cholera expert Danielle Lantagne told the BBC it was “most likely” that the epidemic began in the camp housing soldiers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. Available evidence suggests that Nepalese peacekeepers inadvertently spread cholera into the main waterway of Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries. Lawyers of the victims said the U.N. broke international law and gave the organization a 60-day deadline to start talks on billions of dollars worth of compensation. The U.N. has insisted that it is immune from compensation claims and legal proceedings.

Gender Segregation — The New York Times reports that the Israeli government is trying to end gender segregation in public spaces. Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein advised ministers across the government to issue guidelines, which are likely to be adopted in the coming weeks, to immediately end gender segregation in public areas. “The sweeping ruling comes after several years of mounting tension and legal battles over the treatment of women in Israel’s public sphere, particularly the requirement that they sit in the back on bus lines through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, which set off civil disobedience campaigns involving many Jews from overseas,” writes theTimes. Observers said ultra-Orthodox Jews will see the move as an attack on their way of life.

Kurdish Fighters Withdrawal – A senior Turkish politician said that Kurdish separatist fighters are beginning to withdraw from Turkey – possibly spelling the end of a 30-year ethnic conflict that has killed over 40,000 people, reports the Guardian. A group of fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (known as the PKK, a group seeking greater autonomy for the Kurdish region and full democratic rights for Kurds, thought to make up 20% of the population in Turkey) is retreating towards northern Iraq, claims Gultan Kisanak, joint leader of Turkey’s Peace and Democracy party, following a PKK announcement on Tuesday that 2,000 rebels would leave Turkey over a period of five months. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that retreating PKK fighters will not be harmed, but should lay down their weapons as soon as possible. But in April, rebel leader Murat Karayilan warned that the PKK would not put down their weapons before withdrawing, and would retaliate if its forces were attacked while retreating, writes the Guardian.

Philippines Growth – The President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, said the country needs to act to dispel its image of “the sick man of Asia,” reports Bloomberg. The Philippines is Asia’s fastest-growing economy after China, expanding 6.6% last year. But despite the growth rate and a shrinking budget deficit earning the country a ratings upgrade, the Philippines has one of the highest unemployment rates in Asia-Pacific, and poverty levels have not changed since before Aquino took office in 2010. Speaking in an interview Wednesday, Aquino stressed the need to step up the fight against the country’s notorious corruption and also to reduce the number of Filipinos traveling abroad to work, in order to prove that the country’s recent economic success is not simply a “temporary aberration,” writes Bloomberg.

Nigeria’s Taste for Champagne  – The growth in Nigeria’s consumption of champagne is second only to that of France, and higher than China’s, according to figures from research company Euromonitor, reports the Guardian. The country’s growing elite, fueled by the oil and movie industries, are spending $50 million a year on champagne, a figure that is expected to rise to $105 million by 2017. The figures represent a trend of lavish spending among wealthy Nigerians, with tourists from that nation becoming the fourth-biggest foreign spenders in the U.K., according to figures released last year. But, in a country where 63% of people live on less than $1 a day, the champagne figures have left a bitter taste in the mouths of some commentators: an editorial in local newspaper the Daily Trust said the figures represented a “profligacy that is offensive, if not obscene,” writes the Guardian.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

AFP
May 8, 2013

UNITED NATIONS — Victims of a Haiti cholera epidemic widely blamed on UN peacekeepers gave the United Nations 60 days to clinch a compensation deal or face a lawsuit demand for billions of dollars.

The US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said it is now representing 8,000 victims and families of the more than 8,100 dead from the epidemic that erupted in October 2010.

IJDH director Brian Concannon said the suit would be launched in New York if the United Nations did not respond by the deadline, and could also be taken in Europe.

The United Nations said in February that it was legally immune from action over the epidemic that has sickened more than 650,000 people.

The epidemic has been sourced to a river that runs next to a peacekeepers’ camp in the central town of Mirebalais, where Nepalese troops had been based. The strain of cholera is the same as one endemic in Nepal.

Institute lawyers say they are seeking $100,000 for the family of each victim who died from cholera and $50,000 for each survivor. That could take the potential claim into several billion dollars.

“We are looking for an urgent and adequate response from the UN,” Concannon said. “Immunity cannot mean impunity.”

The cholera epidemic dealt a new blow to Haiti as it struggled to overcome the strife caused by a January 2010 earthquake that killed 250,000 people.

The UN said in February that the complaint from the victims’ lawyers was “non-receivable” under a 1946 convention setting out the UN’s immunities for its actions.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a $2.2 billion appeal in December, however, to raise money to provide clean water and health facilities in the deeply impoverished Caribbean nation.

Lawyers sent their formal response to the UN on Tuesday.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

BBC
May 8, 2013

Victims of Haiti’s cholera epidemic have given the United Nations a 60-day deadline to start talks about billions of dollars worth of compensation or face legal action.

The UN is accused of negligently allowing peacekeeping soldiers to pollute Haiti’s water with cholera.

A UN cholera expert agrees that this is “most likely” to be true.

The UN rejected an earlier call for compensation and continues to insist it is immune from legal proceedings.

The cholera epidemic began in Haiti in 2010 near a camp for UN soldiers, where there were leaking sewage pipes. Some human waste was also dumped near a river outside the camp.

The camp housed UN soldiers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. The UN’s own cholera expert, Danielle Lantagne, has said that Haiti’s outbreak is likely to have come from UN soldiers.

The victims include relatives of the 8,000 people who have died and hundreds of thousands of people who have fallen sick.

Lawyers for the victims say the UN is breaking international law.

They say they will open legal proceedings in New York with claims totalling many billions of dollars if the UN does not start talks within 60 days.

The lawyers say they will file claims for $100,000 (£64,000) for the families of those who have died and $50,000 (£32,000) for every one of the hundreds of thousands who have fallen sick.

The UN’s relative silence on the matter so far may be because it simply does not know what to do in the face of what could be a series of catastrophic and deadly errors, says the BBC’s International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle.

Click HERE to see the Original Article 

By Peter James Spielmann, Associated Press
May 8, 2013

A Boston-based human rights group said Wednesday it will sue the United Nations in 60 days if the world body does not agree to compensate Haitian cholera victims, apologize to the Caribbean nation for introducing the disease through its peacekeeping force, and launch a major effort to improve sanitation.

Lawyers for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said they hoped to be able to settle with the United Nations but are ready to go to court in New York if that fails.

The announcement was the group’s response to a U.N. letter in February saying it is legally immune and was not responsible for the cholera outbreak that has sickened nearly 500,000 people and killed over 7,750 people since the outbreak began in October 2010.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti cites independent studies suggesting that the disease was inadvertently brought to Haiti by a U.N. peacekeeping battalion from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. A local contractor failed to properly sanitize the waste of a U.N. base, and the bacteria leaked into a tributary of one of Haiti’s biggest rivers, according to one study by a U.N.-appointed panel.

Haiti’s cholera epidemic followed a Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that killed 316,000 people and displaced more than a million others.

Brian Concannon, the institute’s director, said the U.N. asserted its immunity in its recent letter.

“They may have immunity, but they don’t have impunity,” said Ira Kurzban, another lawyer preparing the lawsuit.

Concannon and Kurzban said they are operating on the legal principle that if the United Nations does not respond to appeals for justice, and leaves the plaintiffs with no legal recourse, the U.N. loses its immunity.

The U.N.-installed water system pumped sewage directed into the river, and “This was the system’s normal operation,” said Concannon.

Haiti had not had a problem with cholera since the 1800s until the 2010 outbreak, said Dr. Jean Ford Figaro, a Haitian doctor speaking for the lawsuit. He said the death toll has now surpassed 8,000, citing Haitian Health Ministry figures.

UCLA’s School of Public Health sent a field mission to Haiti after the outbreak to study its origin. One of the school’s professors, Renaud Piarroux, later wrote that the study confirmed the epidemic was imported and started around the Nepalese peacekeepers’ camp, then “spread explosively due to massive contamination of the water.”

A study of the bacteria conducted in 2010 by scientists at Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. mapped its genome, the set of genes that makes any organism unique. The Haitian strain is almost identical to types found in South Asia and differs greatly from those circulating in nearby Latin America, according to the analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That suggested humans carried the Asian strain into Haiti, though it did not pinpoint the country of origin.

Concannon said that if there is no settlement, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti will take the United Nations to court in 60 days. He told the AP that they will probably sue in New York State court initially, and anticipated that the United Nations will counter by saying the case should go to U.S. federal court.

He and Kurzban said they are also planning a lawsuit in a European venue.

 Click HERE to see the Original Article 

By TRENTON DANIEL Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti May 8, 2013 (AP)

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide made a rare public appearance Wednesday and thousands of supporters shadowed the ex-leader’s motorcade following a court hearing.

The swelling crowd of backers who chanted songs and waved posters of Aristide in Haiti’s capital pointed to the level of influence the two-time president still holds among the poor more than two years after his sudden return from exile.

It also underscored the strong possibility that his political party could prove a serious contender in legislative elections that are supposed to be held before year’s end.

“For the people, the wasps have been knocked out of the nest,” said Jean Altidor, a 39-year-old motorcycle driver who had a portrait of Aristide taped to his bike. In his metaphor, Aristide is the nest, and the people are the wasps.

With a delegation of longtime allies and former lawmakers at his side, Aristide showed up at a courthouse Wednesday morning in downtown Port-au-Prince to testify before a judge investigating the slaying of one of the Caribbean country’s most prominent journalists, Jean Dominique. The hearing was closed to the public.

Aristide left the crowded courthouse through a back exit three hours later. In an apparent ploy to distract journalists and make it easier for the former president to leave, news media were told to assemble in a nearby room for a news conference with Aristide, which was never held.

Aristide’s lawyer, Mario Joseph, said he couldn’t disclose details of discussions about the case. “What’s important is that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide came and answered questions,” he said.

Aristide was between terms as president when Dominique, a close friend, was gunned down in April 2000 in the courtyard of the radio station that he ran with his wife. A security guard was also killed.

Several people were arrested in connection with the slaying of the outspoken radio personality, but authorities have never pointed to possible architects of the killing.

Haitian police had banned street protests both supporting and opposing Aristide because it needed its officers to provide security for the former leader’s convoy.

Despite the police order, thousands of Aristide supporters spilled into downtown Port-au-Prince and followed his silver Toyota Land Cruiser, which sported a pair of Haitian flags in the front.

“The population clearly said it’s not a protest — it’s a march accompanying President Aristide,” Maryse Narcisse, a spokeswoman for his political party, told Radio Kiskeya.

Instead of taking a direct route home, the caravan snaked through the capital’s poorer neighborhoods as onlookers tried to get a glimpse of Aristide. The crowds grew, and in the hilltop shantytown of Bel-Air, Aristide stood atop his vehicle and waved to supporters.

The gathering constituted the largest demonstration against President Michel Martelly’s government this year, and among the biggest since he took office two years ago this month.

The Dominique case has been largely dormant for years, and Aristide’s supporters have wondered if there are political motivations behind the revived case. An open case against Aristide, the official leader of the Lavalas party, could make it difficult for candidates to register under the party in elections that are supposed to be held before year’s end.

“We hope this isn’t political, that the government isn’t using the Jean Dominique case so Lavalas can’t qualify for the elections,” an Aristide supporter, Jean Cene, said while pressed against a barricade.

A few people carried placards that read: “The more you persecute him, the more we love him.”

Lavalas leaders say the party plans to run in the legislative and local election that was supposed to have been held in late 2011. The still unscheduled vote seeks to fill 10 Senate seats along with dozens of municipal posts.

 There was no immediate comment by the Martelly administration.

Aristide is among Haiti’s most popular political figures. The former Roman Catholic priest was a champion of the country’s impoverished masses and led a movement to oust dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Aristide alienated Haiti’s wealthy elite and was forced from power twice, first by a military junta in 1991 and again by a rebellion in 2004.

He returned to Haiti in 2011 following exile in South Africa.
———
Associated Press writer Evens Sanon contributed to this report.

Click HERE to view to original article

Haiti Cholera Victims Announce Next Step Towards Justice at UN

At a May 8 press conference in New York, IJDH and BAI responded to the UN’s refusal to hear cholera claims.

NYIHA Film Festival-Screening of Baseball in Time of Cholera

 

New York, NY – Maysles Cinema

WHEN    Thursday, May 9th

WHERE   Maysles Cinema

                   343 Malcolm X Boulevard/ Lenox Avenue

                   (Between 127th and 128th Streets)

                    New York, NY 10027 

IJDH Staff Attorney Beatrice Lindstorm will attend for Q&A session on Thursday, May 9th. 

NYIHA Film Fest 2013 brings a unique set of films from Puerto Rico, Haiti, Brazil and South Africa to New York. The festival brings films into the public eye that impart knowledge of migrations, diasporas, and interactions of cultural groups.