(2018-05) Development of a National Action Plan for the Implementation of the Recommendations of Human Rights Mechanisms in Haiti: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/38/30)
Summary — OHCHR report to the Human Rights Council on Haiti's efforts to implement human rights recommendations, covering pretrial detention, prison overcrowding, penal law reform, accountability, illiteracy, displacement and migrants, with recommendations for a national action plan.
Key Findings
- Haiti's 2014 draft national human rights action plan was never finalized, and the Interministerial Committee on Human Rights has operated without a coordinating authority since the delegate minister post for human rights was abolished in December 2014. An estimated 59 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, keeping Haiti the poorest country in the Americas. As of January 2018, about 37,000 Haitians, including 15,000 children, remained displaced from the 2010 earthquake, and Hurricane Matthew temporarily displaced 175,000 people in 2016. The High Commissioner urges the Government to relaunch the national action plan, address prolonged pretrial detention and prison overcrowding, adopt the revised penal codes and combat illiteracy.
Full Description
Submitted on the basis of the Human Rights Council President's statement of 24 March 2017 (A/HRC/PRST/34/1), this report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reviews the Haitian Government's efforts to implement recommendations from international human rights mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review and the former Independent Expert on Haiti. It describes the national institutional framework, including the Interministerial Committee on Human Rights, left without leadership after the delegate minister post for human rights was abolished in December 2014, and the Office de la protection du citoyen. Drawing on monitoring by the human rights component of MINUJUSTH, the report examines prolonged pretrial detention, inhumane prison conditions, the pending revised Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, impunity for police abuses and for past gross violations, persistent illiteracy, the situation of some 37,000 people still displaced from the 2010 earthquake as of January 2018, and the rights of Haitian migrants facing large-scale returns from neighbouring countries. It recommends finalizing a national human rights action plan building on the 2014 draft.
Notes
UN document A/HRC/38/30 (French edition); ayitistats wave B; HR mandate-holder report; dedupe vs OHCHR holdings