Election body to decide if vote deadline viable
(REUTERS) – Provisional Haiti President Jocelerme Privert said on Tuesday a new election council would determine if a delayed runoff could be held by an April deadline, as concerns grow that a political standoff would again scupper efforts to hold the vote.
“The electoral council will establish a calendar and a budget. It is only then that we will know whether they need additional time or not,” he said.
The election has already been delayed three times over allegations of fraud in the first round, and Privert called on opponents to support his efforts to quickly hand power to an elected successor.
U.S. nursing schools announces new program in Haiti
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) recently announced a new affiliation agreement with the FSIL School of Nursing in Haiti.
FNU’s first objective is to support FSIL as the school develops a nurse-midwifery program, with a goal of launching the program in fall 2016. FNU will be assisting with curriculum development, providing consultation on distance education issues and helping ensure the nurse-midwifery program launches successfully.
Court hears suit against U.N. on Haiti cholera outbreak
A legal battle by the Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic against theUnited Nations reached its highest level in an American court on Tuesday, as lawyers for the plaintiffs were permitted to argue before a federal appeals panel why they believe the United Nations is not entitled to immunity, the New York Times reported.
Based on the questions asked by the three judges hearing the arguments in a packed Manhattan federal courtroom, they appeared sympathetic to the victims.
The outcome of the case, in which United Nations peacekeepers are accused of having negligently brought cholera to Haiti after their deployment in 2010 following a disastrous earthquake, could have enormous implications for the United Nations. The global organization has asserted that a 1946 convention on privileges and immunities insulates it from such legal action — a defense that the appellate judges are now weighing.