UN"s own expert calls its actions over Haiti cholera outbreak "a disgrace"

The United Nations’ refusal to accept responsibility for the devastating cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 9,000 lives in Haiti has been branded a “disgrace” by the organisation’s own human rights special rapporteur.

Human rights groups working with victims had reacted with jubilation earlier this year following the UN’s first tacit admission that it was to blame for the outbreak after doggedly refusing to address how its peacekeepers brought the disease to Haiti in 2010.

However, in a scathing report (pdf) to the UN general assembly, the organisation’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, said that flawed and unfounded legal advice provided by the UN lawyers was preventing it from accepting responsibility for the outbreak.

“The UN’s explicit and unqualified denial of anything other than a moral responsibility is a disgrace,” Alston said. “If the United Nations bluntly refuses to hold itself accountable for human rights violations, it makes a mockery of its efforts to hold governments and others to account.”

Alston accused the UN’s Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) for coming up with a “patently artificial and wholly unfounded legal pretence for insisting that the organisation must not take legal responsibility for what it has done”.

The criticism comes as the administration of the outgoing UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is moving to provide compensation for the first time to victims of the outbreak. The UN plans to make cash payments from a proposed $ 400m (£328m) cholera response package, the New York Times reported.

Alston added that the OLA’s approach “has been cloaked in secrecy: there has been no satisfactory official explanation of the policy, no public attempt to justify it, and no known assessment of its consequences for future cases. This goes directly against the principles of accountability, transparency and the rule of law that the UN itself promotes globally.”

Peacekeepers who were relocated from Nepal to Haiti in 2010 in the wake of a major earthquake imported the deadly cholera bacterium with them. Studies have found that the UN troops could have been screened for the illness, and the disaster averted, for as little as $ 2,000.

Alston said the UN’s legal position appears to be largely explained by the approach of the US, the main contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping budget.
“Despite numerous requests to do so, the United States itself has never publicly stated its legal position on the responsibility of the UN for causing cholera in Haiti,” he added.

“Instead, it seems to have pressed the UN to adopt the position frequently taken by lawyers in the US that responsibility should never be accepted voluntarily, since it could complicate future litigation. But this rationale is completely inapplicable to the UN, which enjoys absolute immunity from suit in national courts and whose reputation depends almost entirely on being seen to act with integrity.”

The special rapporteur said that the current stance of the UN’s lawyers ensures that it would never admit its responsibility for introducing cholera. “And avoiding legal responsibility hinders the UN from learning lessons and making sure that the fatal mistakes made in Haiti are not repeated elsewhere.”

Ban’s office said in a statement earlier this year that the organisation had decided to step up its efforts to fight cholera in one of the world’s poorest countries. A reference to the UN’s “involvement in the initial outbreak” was greeted as a breakthrough by groups working with cholera victims.

Ban appeared to have been bounced into making a clearer recognition of responsibility than ever before by the advent of a draft report by Alston into how the UN handled the crisis. Alston had also been one of five experts working for the UN who earlier this year wrote a heavily critical letter to Ban in which the secretary general’s resistance to accepting any responsibility was torn apart.

UN"s own expert calls its actions over Haiti cholera outbreak "a disgrace"

UK’s ‘hidden disgrace’: mental health problems can lead to 42% pay gap

People suffering from mental health problems such as depression and panic attacks earn up to 42% less than their peers, prompting the government’s equalities watchdog to brand the pay gap “a disgrace”.

Evidence collected by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has exposed stark differences between the earnings of those suffering from psychological illness and those who are not. For every pound that a non-disabled man earns, men who have conditions such as phobias or panic attacks earn only 58p. Similarly, men with anxiety or depression are paid only 74p for every pound earned by their contemporaries those who have no such troubles.

The commission has found a similar but less pronounced pattern with women: those suffering from anxiety or depression earn 10p less for every pound earned by their non-disabled peers, according to research to be published next month which the commission has passed to the Observer.

“We must do more to tackle the injustice in our society of this mental health pay gap,” said David Isaac, EHRC chair. The figures revealed “the hidden disgrace of British society’s pay gap for men and women living with depression and panic attacks”, he added.

The watchdog’s findings have prompted claims of discrimination in the workplace against people with mental health problems. “These findings are really shocking,” said Martin Tod, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum. “Our research shows that men with mental health difficulties are very concerned about how their employers will perceive them. This research shows they’re absolutely right to be.”

Related: Have men been let down over mental health?

The commission has been taken aback by the scale of some of the differentials uncovered during its research into gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps. Isaac urged ministers to narrow the gaps as part of its promise to improve mental health support.

“Business leaders and government must get together to understand why this is happening and ensure that employers have the right policies and culture to protect and support people with mental health issues at work and help them develop in their chosen careers,” he said.

Commission analysis of men who suffer from mental impairment, including learning difficulties and mental health problems, has concluded that they are more likely to earn less as a result of working part-time, being in low-paid jobs or having few educational qualifications. Notwithstanding that, however, “there is still a large and unexplained gap and the impact of discrimination and stigmatisation as underlying factors should not be underestimated”.

Related: Younger voters put social issues and environment before economy, survey shows

The findings come days after the latest British Social Attitudes Survey found evidence of perceptions of prejudice in the workplace. For example, few people believe that a person with depression (17%) or schizophrenia (8%) that is well controlled by medication would be as likely as others to be promoted. And about one in three think that the medical history of someone with either condition should make a difference to their chances of gaining promotion.

NatCen Social Research’s study also found that while 71% of people would be willing to move next door to someone with depression, just 45% said the same about a person with schizophrenia. Similarly, just 36% are happy to have someone with depression marry into their family, and fewer than 20% would want someone with the condition providing childcare for their family.

Emma Mamo, head of workplace wellbeing at the mental health charity Mind, said: “Fortunately, employer attitudes towards recruiting and supporting people with mental health problems are improving, with many employers now putting in place measures to support staff wellbeing.

Related: The Guardian view on mental health: still underfunded after too many false promises | Editorial

“It’s unacceptable that people with mental health problems earn less than those without mental health problems.“Staff who have a mental health problem can and do make a valuable contribution to the workplace,” said Mamo: “People with mental health problems face barriers in getting into, and staying in, work. Many employees don’t feel comfortable disclosing a mental health problem to their employer, often fearing they’ll be perceived as weak, incompetent or unable to cope.”

The EHRC has found that people with mental health conditions wanted three things from employers: flexible working, more supportive managers and understanding from colleagues. However, almost none of them had been offered those things.

UK’s ‘hidden disgrace’: mental health problems can lead to 42% pay gap

Lawrence Dallaglio manufacturers NHS cancer treatment a "national disgrace"

Former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio has written to the wellness secretary, Jeremy Hunt, describing NHS England as a “national disgrace” for going back on a deal to fund cutting-edge cancer therapy, it was reported.

Dallaglio accused the overall health service of “turning the clock back” on the way the illness is currently being treated by not paying for patients to have stereotactic radiotherapy.

The sports star turned charity campaigner, whose mom Eileen died of cancer in 2008, was asked to function with NHS England on the problem following previously approaching David Cameron with his concerns that not enough individuals had access to the treatment method.

The method includes targeting radiotherapy very exactly at the tumour, that means that higher doses of radiation can be delivered with significantly less threat of it affecting surrounding organs, but the quantity of individuals getting supplied it has fallen by a lot more than ten% since NHS England took handle, the Sunday Occasions reported.

In Dallaglio’s letter, components of which are published in the paper, he accused NHS England of “going back on its word”.

He advised Hunt: “The way NHS England are approaching this is turning the clock back on the way we’re treating cancer. We’re not just standing still and undertaking nothing, we’re turning the clock back. It angers me.”

He stated the engineering that “the rest of the civilised planet uses as a matter of regimen” would be employed by only “pitiful numbers”, without having a assure they would even commence becoming treated in the subsequent economic 12 months.

Dallaglio has raised hundreds of thousands of lbs for charity because launching the Dallaglio Basis following his mother’s death.

Lawrence Dallaglio manufacturers NHS cancer treatment a "national disgrace"