October 2021 marked the 11th anniversary of the introduction of cholera into Haiti by UN peacekeepers in 2010, and advocates used the occasion to renew demands for justice and meaningful compensation that remained largely undelivered more than a decade after the UN had acknowledged its responsibility. Protests and commemorations in Port-au-Prince and in the diaspora drew attention to what advocates called an ongoing injustice that the international community’s short attention span had allowed to fade without resolution.
The cholera epidemic had killed at least 10,000 Haitians and infected nearly a million between 2010 and the dramatic decline in cases in subsequent years. Victims and their families had been fighting for compensation for more than a decade, winning moral acknowledgments but failing to secure the material assistance that the UN had pledged in 2016. The trust fund established for this purpose remained severely underfunded.
In 2021, cholera cases had declined to very low levels, but the disease had not been eliminated from Haiti. The political and security crisis, with its disruption of water and sanitation systems and healthcare access, created ongoing conditions in which a resurgence was possible. The response to that risk required sustained public health investment that the crisis environment was making increasingly difficult to maintain.
The anniversary of the cholera introduction was also an occasion for reflection on what the epidemic had revealed about the accountability of international institutions and the vulnerability of nations that depend on international support for their security and development. The failure to deliver justice to cholera victims was a stain on the international system that advocates argued had implications far beyond Haiti.