Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments, June through November 2021

This update, covering June through November 2021, reports that the government's failure to pay for delivered fuel combined with gang control over key infrastructure caused an acute fuel shortage and severe disruptions to healthcare, communication, education, food security and even drinking-water access, pushing a growing number of Haitians to emigrate even as regional immigration policy and an economic slowdown drove forced repatriations. Haiti's democratic weaknesses and foreign intervention are cited as underlying much of this crisis: the 7 July assassination of President Jovenel Moise intensified a governance crisis that a decade of rule by his Parti Haitien Tet Kale (PHTK), during which no election was held or deemed fair, had already deepened, leaving no constitutional means to fill the presidential vacancy.

Dr. Ariel Henry, an experienced PHTK official whom Moise had named but not yet installed as prime minister, assumed de facto authority despite lacking constitutional legitimacy; civil society views the Henry government as simply another PHTK iteration with a history of working with gangs and engaging in politicized violence. Despite this, Haitian women continued to defend their rights through national protests demanding rule of law and democracy, and in January the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis launched a participatory transition effort, publishing an Accord on 30 August proposing a concrete path to credible elections under conditions civil society, government experts and long-term observers generally agree do not currently exist.

A powerful August earthquake caused significant loss of life and destruction in the southwest, compounding pressure from a worsening COVID-19 caseload on already-devastated infrastructure. The update covers the security situation, state-sanctioned violence and corruption, judicial dysfunction fueling impunity, issues affecting marginalized groups, deteriorating social and economic conditions, and the difficulties facing Haitian emigrants, with particular attention to the international drivers of Haiti's crisis.