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par Kim Ives
 Haiti’s foremost human rights law office,
the International Lawyers Bureau (BAI), has addressed a letter
to Jose de Jesus Orozca Henriquez, President of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to call
attention to Haiti’s deteriorating human rights situation.
“The current government under
President Joseph Michel Martelly appears to be regressing back
to the practices of the former political regime that were
rejected by the Haitian people 26 years ago,” wrote the BAI’s
lead attorney Mario Joseph, who signed the letter. “This new
government tramples the housing rights of internally displaced
persons (IDPs) who were victims of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake,
as well as Haitian children’s right to education, by applying
superficial solutions to please certain audiences while
misleading the Haitian people who still wait for the fulfillment
of election promises.”
Copies of the eight-page letter
were also sent to Haiti’s Justice Minister, the presidents of
human rights committees in Parliament, the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, UN independent expert on the situation of
human rights in Haiti, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty
International, and members of the U.S. Congressional Black
Caucus, among others.
“The situation in Haiti is
often analogized to a vast conspiracy by certain representatives
of the country who have created a host of illegal and cynical
strategies: the subjugation of the Haiti National Police (HNP)
and justice, the attempt to control the mass media and
remobilize the old army, the cult of personality, etc.,” the
letter continues. “Haitians fear that they are returning to a
past era akin to that under Duvalier, when a ‘conspiracy against
the internal security of the State’ was often used to terrorize
and imprison political opponents and/or attempt to force people
into exile, Fort Dimanche (Fort of Death) and/or into a
cemetery, and where the whims of the regime and its thugs
plummeted the country into instability and violence.”
“President Martelly’s failure
to hold elections, and his outrageous actions with the State
University and the press, the forced evictions of victims
displaced by the earthquake and the arrest of a Member of
Parliament show that he does not stand for democracy, human
rights or the rule of law.”
The letter, dated Jul. 17,
2012, is well-footnoted and details violations of freedom of
speech and the press, constitutionally mandated elections that
have not been held in a timely manner, the illegal arrest of a
parliamentarian, violations of the sovereignty of Haiti’s state
university campuses, violations of IDPs’ housing rights, the
inaccessibility of justice and the inadequate support for
victims of sexual violence in camps, and a host of cases of
impunity and corruption.
“The dislocation of state
institutions, corruption, various scandals, attacks and
intimidation of the press, arbitrary arrests, illegal and
unjustified prosecution of political opponents, and impunity are
the hallmarks of a dictatorship that undermines democracy,” the
letter concludes. “This deleterious and unhealthy environment
undermines the respect for human rights. The BAI, despite all
sorts of threats it receives, will not close its eyes and be
silent as these dangers haunt Haiti and Haitian society.”
The
full text of the letter can be found on the website of the
BAI’s sister organization, the Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti, at IJDH.org. |
