In October 2010, UN peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti, sparking the worst cholera epidemic of modern time. Over 9,000 Haitians have died and 800,000 have fallen ill. Haitian victims have banded together with activists and lawyers to seek remedies from the UN, by filing claims with the UN’s legal office and bringing an unprecedented lawsuit against the UN in federal court in New York. In December 2016, the victims won a critical victory when the Secretary-General issued a historic apology and promised material assistance to victims.

The cholera crisis and efforts to hold the UN accountable raise critical questions in emerging areas of international law, including the responsibility of international organizations, the right to an effective remedy, and whether individuals should be able to sue the UN in national courts. Join Beatrice Lindstrom, Staff Attorney at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti and lawyer for the victims, in a discussion of how lawyers are innovating new strategies to strengthen UN accountability and secure justice for victims.

Chipotle lunch will be served. Seating limited. 

Beatrice Lindstrom, Esq. is a Staff Attorney at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), where she manages advocacy and litigation to seek accountability and remedies from the United Nations for its peacekeepers’ introduction of cholera to Haiti. Ms. Lindstrom is lead counsel in Georges v. United Nations, a class action lawsuit on behalf of Haitians and Haitian-Americans injured by cholera. Ms. Lindstrom regularly provides expertise on UN accountability and human rights in Haiti, including as a former country expert for Freedom House, as a frequent guest lecturer at universities, and in the media. Prior to joining IJDH, she was an Arthur Helton Global Human Rights Fellow at the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Port-au-Prince, where she documented human rights abuses and worked with communities impacted by the 2010 earthquake. Beatrice holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root Tilden Kern scholar, and completed her bachelor's degree at Emory University. She is the 2015 recipient of the NYU Law Alumni Association’s Recent Graduate Award.