A human rights group says it has submitted claims to the United Nations seeking damages on behalf of more than 5,000 Haitians affected by the nation's deadly cholera outbreak.

The petition filed by the U.S.-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti says the U.N. and its peacekeeping force are liable for hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to adequately screen peacekeeping soldiers arriving from countries with cholera epidemics.

It also faults the organization for dumping untreated waste from one of its bases into a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite River.

Haiti's cholera outbreak has been traced to U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal. A U.N. panel of experts found sanitation at the Nepalese troops' base was not sufficient to keep human waste from contaminating the river.

Haitian health officials say cholera has killed more than 6,500 Haitians and sickened nearly 500,000 since the outbreak began a little more than a year ago.

In its statement Tuesday, the IJDH says the Haitians filing the claims are all either victims of the disease or relatives of victims.