Roadmap for the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Heidi Fortune)
Summary: A roadmap sent on 29 March 2017 by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant to Heidi Fortune at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. It refers back to the general policy statement he put to the Senate on 14 March 2017 and to the Chamber of Deputies on 20 March 2017, then sets out what the ministry is to undertake over the five-year term.
Key Findings
- Puts resourcing the Conseil Supérieur du Pouvoir Judiciaire first, so that it can discharge its constitutional and legal missions, ahead of the substantive reforms.
- Names prolonged pretrial detention as a thing to be ended rather than reduced, alongside strengthening the legal assistance bureau and stronger working relations with human rights organizations.
- Assigns penitentiary reform with a stated purpose, transforming the prisons into places of life and re-education for citizenship, which is a standard the reform can be measured against.
- Ties civil registry reform to a single citizen identification mechanism, and the family record book to proving filiation and the sequence of a citizen's civil events.
- Sets a specific policing footprint: communal police posts of three officers each across all the communal sections of the republic, alongside continuing professionalization of the Police Nationale d'Haïti.
- Requires stronger specialized services against drugs, asset laundering, smuggling, organ trafficking and organized crime.
- Assigns code revision, consolidation of the rights of minors and stronger training programs for judicial personnel, and requires courts, tribunals and prosecution offices to be equipped with the administrative materials and tools an effective public justice service needs.
Full Description
A roadmap sent on 29 March 2017 by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant to Heidi Fortune at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. It refers back to the general policy statement he put to the Senate on 14 March 2017 and to the Chamber of Deputies on 20 March 2017, then sets out what the ministry is to undertake over the five-year term.
How to cite
Office of the Prime Minister of Haiti, 2017, Roadmap for the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Heidi Fortune), http://www.sgcm.gouv.ht/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Feuille-de-route-Ministre-Justice.pdf