Haitians endured the devastating 2010 earthquake, only to be rocked later that same year by a cholera epidemic that has since claimed nearly 7,000 lives. While the first disaster was arguably unavoidable, the second could have been easily sidestepped—and the fact that it wasn’t should be put to rights, according to one nonprofit organization.

The commonly accepted source of the cholera—a disease unknown in Haiti for decades before the October 2010 outbreak—was a UN peacekeeping force from Nepal stationed near the Artibonite River. Although the United Nations hasn’t directly accepted 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 is circumstantial.

Now a U.S.-based human rights organization is calling on the United Nations to step up and take responsibility for the outbreak, which has sickened nearly 500,000 and continues to rage. The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti has 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.

“The sickness, death and ongoing harm from cholera suffered by Haiti's citizens are a product of the UN's multiple failures,” the complaint reads according to the AP. “These failures constitute negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and deliberate indifference for the lives of Haitians.”

The United Nations confirmed Friday that it received the complaint against its Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which it had forwarded to its lawyers.

The IJDH complaint represents more than 5,000 cholera-affected Haitians. It seeks $50,000 each for those sickened, $100,000 for survivors of each of those killed, and a public apology, according to CNN. While legal enforcement of the claim is unlikely, the case is meant to drive the United Nations to action, IJDH Director Brian Concannon told CNN.

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

While perhaps not legally enforceable, the complaint isn’t frivolous either, according to experts.

“One would hope that the [UN] Secretary General would address this with great moral seriousness,” Ruth Wedgwood, a professor of international law and diplomacy at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies told the AP. “It's a lot of money but if the facts as alleged [are] true it's a serious harm.”

More is at stake than simply making restitution because the UN sets the standard for other groups working to restore the country, Concannon has said.

“This is an opportunity for the UN to demonstrate that it’s not above its own laws,” he told The Economist. “Providing justice to Haiti’s cholera’s victims will establish the mission’s credibility and enhance its ability to convince Haitian actors that they need to obey the law.”