Decree Instituting a State of Emergency in the Ouest, Artibonite and Centre Departments for Three Months (Le Moniteur, Special No. 51, 12 August 2025)

Le Moniteur, 180th year, Spécial No. 51, of Tuesday 12 August 2025, carrying the decree of 8 August 2025 by which the Conseil Présidentiel de Transition instituted a state of emergency over the Ouest, Artibonite and Centre departments for three consecutive months.

The recitals set out the grounds. The country's multiform crisis has produced a situation of extreme urgency, marked by heightened violence from armed gangs and a humanitarian situation threatening the population and the foundations of the Republic. The criminal action of those groups, followed by the threat of civil war and genocide, is described as highly dangerous for national, subregional, regional and international security, and as carrying serious consequences for productive sectors, for agricultural and food output, for services, and for the movement of people and goods.

The decree also records the ordinary limit it departs from. Under the Decree of 15 March 2021, an emergency declared by the central authorities by arrêté runs for a maximum of one month, renewable for a further month, and beyond two months may be renewed only with the assent of the legislature for a period set by the scale of the situation. The Council's stated ground for three consecutive months is that the security and humanitarian situation compels a general mobilisation of the state's resources and institutional means.

Article 3 enumerates twenty-three powers. They include the requisition of works and the movement of any public or private property; placing public agents at the disposal of civil protection bodies; calling on any person able to reinforce deployed personnel where public agents are too few; coordinating the recruitment and action of volunteers; requisitioning additional relief means and accommodation from private owners where public logistics fall short; creating ad hoc structures with the powers needed to manage the emergency equitably; reinforcing security arrangements throughout the three departments; requiring broadcasters to carry public information on conduct during the emergency; engaging the Forces Armées d'Haïti in support of the Police Nationale d'Haïti; instituting special safety measures; suspending road, sea, air and telephone communication where operations require it; and mobilising further national and international resources for physical security and for food and agricultural security.

Execution is entrusted to the ministers of justice and public security, the interior and territorial collectivities, defence, and agriculture, and the issue carries the signatures of the Council's members and of the Council of Ministers.