Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments, June through November 2023

This update, covering June through November 2023, reports that Haiti's crisis, despite deep security, humanitarian and economic dimensions, fundamentally revolves around governance collapse. The humanitarian and economic situation remains catastrophic, while violence already at levels associated with armed conflict since at least February has deepened further: the number of people killed by armed-group violence increased sharply in 2023, with the UN reporting at least 3,960 people killed between January and November, compared with 2,183 in 2022, and kidnappings rising from 1,359 in 2022 to at least 2,951 over the same eleven-month period. The impact has been devastating, driving increased internal displacement and migration. Armed groups with clear connections to political and economic elites continue to brutalize civilians, with the governance crisis characterized by entrenched impunity, government corruption, mismanagement, and the deployment of armed groups to advance political ends; Haiti is governed extra-constitutionally, without an elected government or functioning legislature, deepening the crisis of legitimacy underlying the country's compounding emergencies.