Letter to Ambassador Samantha Power Regarding the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti

SUMMARY

The International Human Rights Committee (Anil Kalhan, Chair) and the United Nations Committee (Michael Cooper, Chair) sent a letter to United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power urging that the United States provide support for the UN’s new approach to the cholera epidemic in Haiti before she completes her term as ambassador. The UN has announced a two-track approach both to address the suffering of those who lost loved ones to cholera or were sickened themselves and to provide cholera control measures that are necessary to alleviate this crisis and eventually eliminate the disease from the country. The committees believe that, as the largest financial contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping operations and a permanent member of the Security Council, the support of the United States for the UN’s new approach is critical to enable its implementation and to signal to other Member States that this plan should be supported.