The Haiti Cholera Outbreak and Peacekeeping Paradoxes

Abstract

In 2010, two Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (CHEs) befell Haiti: a devastating earthquake in January and in October, a cholera outbreak that continues to this day. This essay focuses on the latter and examines the paradoxical role of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH—now United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti—MINUJUSTH) in this tragedy, particularly, in a chain of events that call into question its peacekeeping mission.According to Barry Pakes, a Complex Humanitarian Emergency (CHE) is a “type of disaster event that is caused by and results in a complicated set of social, medical and often political circumstances, usually leading to great human suffering and death and requiring external assistance and aid.” CHEs are associated with a variety of factors, such as war, poverty, overpopulation, human-caused environmental destruction and change, and natural disasters. The United Nations (UN) considers a CHE to be a crisis involving multiple causes and requiring a broad and integrated response with long-term political and peacekeeping efforts.” The 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti could be considered a CHE, according to this definition.