Law on Abduction, Unlawful Confinement and Hostage-Taking

Kidnapping for ransom is among the most consequential security phenomena in Haiti, shaping household behavior, business operating costs and the displacement patterns recorded in the corpus's humanitarian material. This law is the criminal statute behind it: it defines the offences of abduction, unlawful confinement and hostage-taking and sets their penalties. Its practical importance grew rather than diminished after enactment, since the incidence of kidnapping rose sharply in the years after 2018. The gazette issue that carries it also contains two laws amending the composition of the boards of the National Society of Industrial Parks (SONAPI) and the National Port Authority (APN). Published in Le Moniteur, 164th year, No. 26, Friday 20 March 2009, as an extraordinary issue. A later law modifying it, of which the site also holds a copy, is ingested separately.