(2023-08) Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments, December 2022 through May 2023

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) • 2023 • 60 pages

Summary — IJDH's periodic update covering December 2022 to May 2023 documents intensifying gang violence, the contested December Accord under de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, pervasive corruption, police weakness, the Bwa Kale vigilante movement and deepening humanitarian crisis.

View Document View Original Source

Key Findings

Gang violence intensified to levels associated with armed conflict, with more than 200 active gangs controlling an estimated 80 percent or more of Port-au-Prince and at least 1,466 people killed between January and April 2023. BINUH recorded at least 395 kidnappings in the first quarter, a 12 percent increase, and at least 160,000 people were displaced by mid-March. The December Accord presented by de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry was signed by no opposition party or major civil society organization. The Bwa Kale vigilante movement killed at least 160 suspected gang members, and only 9,000 of 13,200 PNH personnel were performing actual police functions.

Full Description

This update in IJDH's periodic human rights and rule of law series covers December 2022 through May 2023, a period the report describes as one of accelerating deterioration in governance, security and humanitarian conditions. It documents gang violence reaching levels associated with armed conflict: more than 200 active gangs, control of an estimated 80 percent or more of Port-au-Prince, at least 1,466 deaths between January and April 2023, at least 395 kidnappings in the first quarter, and at least 160,000 people displaced by mid-March. The report criticizes the December Accord presented by de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry as entrenching PHTK-affiliated power without opposition or civil society signatures. It details government complicity with gangs, arms trafficking implicating officials, widespread corruption including non-compliance with asset-declaration law by over 90 percent of officials, police weakness, the emergence of the Bwa Kale vigilante movement, attacks on journalists, and collapsing economic and social rights amid drought and food-price inflation. It closes on international actors' continued support for the de facto government.

Topics

Geography

Time Coverage

2022-12 — 2023-05

Keywords

human rights, rule of law, gang violence, kidnapping, Ariel Henry, December Accord, PHTK, Bwa Kale, corruption, displacement, police, impunity

Entities

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), Ariel Henry, Pati Ayisyen Tet Kale (PHTK), BINUH, Police nationale d'Haiti (PNH), G9 an Fanmi, G-Pep, Bwa Kale, ULCC, Youri Latortue, Joseph Lambert, Berto Dorce, Jean Ernest Muscadin, Negès Mawon, OIM

Notes

IJDH periodic human rights and rule of law review series, French translation of an English original; ayitistats wave B