By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- The UN's bringing of cholera to Haiti and then terse dismissal of the legal claims as “not receivable” have left it less willing or less able to speak out about other abuses in Haiti, including by the government.
The UN got the Haitian government to remain relatively silent about the cholera claims and their dismissal. Now, the UN “owes” the government.
So when evictions of internally displaced people spiked up this year, alongside Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's and his top lawyer Patricia O'Brien's dismissal of the cholera claims, the UN has not spoken up much.
On April 24, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky if he had any comment ready on a widely spread report of nearly 1000 eviction this year. Apparently MINUSTAH and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations headed by Herve Ladsous had not prepared one.
(Click here for "Ladsous' Loophole" on sexual abuse by UN Police, at least from Canada, it seems.)
So lower income people in Haiti were victimized by cholera, then had their claims dismissed. Now many are facing eviction, and again -- now, because of the above -- the UN is relatively silent.
Here is another related matter on which the UN has stayed quiet, per Amnesty:
“On 31 January 2012, Haiti’s National Assembly adopted a law ratifying the ICESCR. However, for the proper ratification of the ICESCR to take place, Haiti’s President must promulgate and publish the new legislation in Le Moniteur (Haiti’s official gazette) and then the government must submit a ratification document to the United Nations Secretary General. At the time of this writing, the President had not yet promulgated the law ratifying the ICESCR.”
And what has Ban Ki-moon said?
The UN's top humanitarian Valerie Amos, who often speaks with passion, gave a 600 word speech in Haiti -- but “cholera” was not one of the words.
Who will tell the UN Secretariat to be more credible? Watch this site.
