Illness upon Injury: In 2010, not even a year after a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti, a cholera outbreak struck the country. The commonly accepted source of the cholera—a disease unknown in Haiti for decades before the October outbreak—was a UN peacekeeping force from Nepal stationed near the Artibonite River.

Although the United Nations didn’t directly accept responsibility for the spread, a 2011 report prepared by independent experts at UN request pointed to unsanitary conditions at the peacekeepers’ camp as the likely point of infection.

Findings from a June report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also “strongly suggest that contamination of the Artibonite and one of its tributaries downstream from a military camp triggered the epidemic,” according to Reuters—although the CDC stressed evidence was circumstantial.

In November of 2011, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a U.S.-based human rights organization, called the United Nations to step up and take responsibility for the outbreak. The group filed a complaint the with Secretary General's office in New York and with the UN Haiti mission's claims unit in Port-au-Prince, according to the Associated Press.

While legal enforcement of the claim was considered unlikely, the case was meant to drive the United Nations to action, IJDH Director Brian Concannon told CNN at the time .

“The victims want the UN to respond, to provide medical treatment and build clean water and waste treatment systems,” Concannon said.

After filing its initial complaint, the IJDH sought redress for victims through an internal UN process for nearly two years, but to no avail, according to its website. In October 2013, the group filed a class action lawsuit against the organization, which has claimed diplomatic immunity from legal action, according to the New York Times.

Still Hurting: Today, Haiti’s cholera epidemic is the world’s largest and victims seem far from receiving any sort of individual reparation, although the UN has consistently stated it is dedicated to helping Haitians overcome the disease.

A report by a United Nations-appointed humanitarian expert last week, however, urged the organization to take responsibility and punish those responsible, according to the BBC. Gustavo Gallon, who was appointed to analyze the Haiti’s human rights situation in September, said that amends needed to be made so the country could move on with fighting the epidemic.

"The diplomatic difficulties around this question have to be resolved to stop the epidemic as soon possible and pay full compensation for suffering experienced," he wrote in his report according to the BBC. Currently the report is only available in French.

The strong statement, coupled with similar sentiments from retired UN officials and the organization’s current human rights chief, could indicate that a storm is brewing at the UN and perhaps another tack could be taken, according to the Economist.

Waiting to be Healed: Meanwhile, separate of internal conflicts at the UN, the United States must decide whether it will take a position in the IDJH lawsuit by Friday, according to an analysis in Al Jazeera America.

If the United States—which provides 22 percent of the UN budget—decides not to intervene in the suit, it could possibly work with Gallon’s recommendations to tip the scale toward compensating victims. But, the analysis warns, the U.S. fiscal interest could also come into play.

The IDJH and 26 other Haitian-American groups have beseeched Secretary of State John Kerry not to let that happen.

“We urge you, and your Department, to stand up for justice and international law by refusing to intervene [in the lawsuit], and letting the cholera victims take their case to court…,” they wrote in a joint letter to Kerry. “This insistence on impunity sets a dangerous example in Haiti, and profoundly undermines the organization’s credibility and ability to carry out any of its missions.”