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The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Human rights. One of the most impressive human rights achievements of the United Nations in recent years emerged from a similar time of crisis within the Organization as a result of its role in the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2010. In response to concerted criticism, the Secretary-General first commissioned an internal review panel to explore whether the United Nations had met its responsibilities to prevent and respond to serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law. He then followed up by announcing his Human Rights Up Front initiative, which "aims to help the United Nations act more coherently across the pillars of the Organization's work - peace and security, development, and human rights". As the Deputy Secretary-General has noted: "Human Rights Up Front is about improving how the United Nations system functions and how staff members are to perform." Yet the refusal to address the human rights violations that have occurred in Haiti as a result of the cholera epidemic stands in stark contrast to the excellent intentions of that initiative. Unless action is taken, the message is that a double standard applies according to which the United Nations can insist that Member States respect human rights, while rejecting any such responsibility for itself even in a particularly egregious situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Second, it is agreed that United Nations actions should comply with human rights standards. The Organization specifically claims "to ensure that its peacekeeping operations and their personnel operate within the normative framework of international human rights law and are held accountable for alleged violations".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Even some of the Organization's traditional supporters have argued that its "peacekeeping brand has been stained indelibly by three major sins", which are sexual misconduct, the negligence involved in bringing cholera to Haiti and "the abject failure of the United Nations to own up to these lapses, and to respond to them in an effective, principled way".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- As part of the efforts to tighten spending, some countries are further curtailing already limited social protection schemes by reducing the level of benefits or by further targeting (reducing coverage). This is despite the reality that those living in poverty continue to suffer from the cumulative effects of the crises and should be protected as a matter of priority.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 63
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- Third, various precedents exist for the United Nations to make one-time lump-sum payments for damages caused by peacekeeping operations. An agreement reached with Belgium in 1965 involved acceptance of "financial liability where the damage is the result of action taken by agents of the United Nations in violation of the laws of war and the rules of international law", but was stated to be "without prejudice to the privileges and immunities which the United Nations enjoys". Similar agreements were also entered into with Luxembourg in 1966 and Italy in 1967.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- In summary, what is at stake is the Organization's overall credibility in many different areas. Its existing position on cholera in Haiti is at odds with the positions that it espouses so strongly in other key policy areas. It has a huge amount to gain by rethinking its position and a great deal to lose by stubbornly maintaining its current approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- In contrast, special procedures mandate holders have been consistently critical of the refusal to take responsibility. In particular, successive Independent Experts on the human rights situation in Haiti have warned since 2012 of the costs of silence and denial on this issue. In 2016 the Independent Expert called for the urgent creation of a commission "to quantify the harm done, establish compensation, identify responsible parties, halt the epidemic and take other measures" (A/HRC/31/77, para. 102).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Various observers have suggested that recognition of liability in a case such as cholera in Haiti would deter troop-contributing countries from participating in future missions. But there are several problems with this analysis. First, the reputational damage caused to troop-contributing countries by the Organization's rejection of legitimate claims is surely even greater than that flowing from a just settlement. A festering sore is much worse than a wound that is healed. Second, those States that are generally keen to contribute troops will be less likely to be asked if their contingents remain under the shadow of unresolved allegations. Third, in line with the 1995 General Assembly resolution on third-party liability, the principal burden of financial settlements that are reached in response to legitimate claims should fall upon the Organization itself and not upon the individual State. Thus, the most effective way to address the fears of troop-contributing countries is to ensure that an insurance scheme is in place, whether set up internally or with an external insurer.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Third, as noted above, the United Nations accepts in principle that it is liable to third parties for damages occurring in the course of its peacekeeping operations (see A/C.5/49/65).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Scholars have criticized the Organization's "shabby formalistic maneuvers to avoid the very principles of the Rule of Law that they urge on the rest of the world", its "preposterous" failure to provide a remedy, its pursuit of "peacekeeping without accountability", its compounding of a public health disaster with a public relations disaster, its dangerous "legalism" which "effectively insulate[s] the organization from accountability", and its "repeated failures … to provide adequate due process to those affected by its decision-making [which] has had a detrimental effect on the Organization and its activities".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Claims of a "private law character" are also referred to in the MINUSTAH status-of-forces agreement, which defines them as "[t]hird-party claims for property loss or damage and for personal injury, illness or death arising from or directly attributed to MINUSTAH". In elaborating on this category, the Secretary-General has stated that claims received in the past include "claims for compensation submitted by third parties for personal injury or death and/or property loss or damage incurred as a result of acts committed by members of a United Nations peacekeeping operation within the 'mission area' concerned" (A/C.5/49/65, para. 15). Such claims are distinguished from those "based on political or policy-related grievances against the United Nations, usually related to actions or decisions taken by the Security Council or the General Assembly" and which often "consist of rambling statements denouncing the policies of the Organization" and claiming that financial losses resulted therefrom (ibid., para. 23).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- While the brevity of the present report precludes a detailed legal analysis, the basic principles are clear. The United Nations has long accepted that, as an attribute of its international legal personality, it can incur obligations and liabilities of a private law nature. It also recognizes its international responsibility for damages caused by the activities of United Nations forces within this framework. In its resolution 52/247 (1998) on third-party liability the General Assembly set up a special regime to deal with third-party claims in the context of peacekeeping missions, although it set temporal, financial and other limitations to that liability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 26
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- In the more than five years since the independent panel of experts submitted its report, there have been many scientific studies that have evaluated the evidence and have added new elements to what was known at that time. It is beyond the scope of the present report to recount the analyses and conclusions of the various studies, but this task has been undertaken systematically in a book published in June 2016. Its author, Ralph R. Frerichs, is professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of California at Los Angeles and the book provides a painstaking and even-handed assessment of the scientific debates that have taken place. For present purposes, it must suffice to note that the book concludes that the peacekeepers were responsible for bringing cholera. In doing so, it systematically vindicates the conclusions reached by one of the first international experts on cholera to investigate the outbreak in Haiti, Dr. Renaud Piarroux. It also deplores what it describes as a "misinformation campaign to protect the United Nations and the peacekeeping program".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- States have an unambiguous responsibility to take steps towards the full achievement of economic, social and cultural rights by using the maximum amount of resources available. In the aftermath of the global economic and financial crises, it has become clear that, in many States, efforts to increase resources for recovery through the whole spectrum of available options have been insufficient, thus impeding States' compliance with human rights. Low levels of domestic taxation revenue, in particular, could be a major obstacle to a State's ability to meet obligations to realize economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
14 shown of 14 entities