Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments, June through November 2022

This update, covering June through November 2022, reports that the interconnected governance and humanitarian crises described in IJDH's past updates continued to deteriorate with catastrophic consequences for the Haitian people, as the de facto government and international community failed in their human rights obligations and contributed to sharply increasing violations of Haitians' rights. Insecurity driven by gangs rose to unprecedented levels, preventing most normal activities; gangs not only continued high levels of violence against civilians, including massacres, kidnapping and destruction of property, but increasingly used rape and other forms of sexual violence as a tool for terrorizing and controlling communities. A federation of gangs led by a former police officer with alleged government connections captured and held Haiti's primary fuel terminal for nearly two months, preventing gas delivery; combined with the de facto government's sudden removal of fuel subsidies at the international community's behest, this produced a near-total national shutdown, a precipitous collapse of critical services and access to necessities like food, water and healthcare, and mass protests against the de facto government.