RNDDH report on the evolution of the human rights situation in Haiti in the context of Covid-19

On 19 March 2020 the authorities announced two cases of Covid-19 and moved the country to phase two of its management of the disease. A presidential decree of two articles adopted the same day declared a state of health emergency throughout the territory for one month and set out measures to prevent the spread. Acting on it, the courts moved to decongest detention and local authorities to protect their communities, and human rights violations were recorded across the country. The network and its regionalised structures publish the results of their monitoring for March and April, with about a hundred cases confirmed at the time of publication. The report reviews the socio-political context just before the disease appeared, sets out the decisions taken by the state in each phase and asks whether they were applicable, and then works through the state of the hospitals, the situation in the markets, transport, the position of people deprived of liberty, the release of detainees under Covid-19 with the cases that drew attention in the jurisdictions of Croix-des-Bouquets, Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes and Hinche, the centre for minors in conflict with the law, and the security situation.

It records beatings and verbal and physical assaults, including on two named journalists and another named man, and a video of a beating in circulation. Its recommendations are operational: create isolation space in the country's hospitals for people infected, train enough qualified people to test and sample suspected cases across the country's geography, supply health centres and hospitals with gowns, gloves, masks, protective glasses, gels and alcohol, ensure release orders meet the criteria the judicial authorities set, review the files of detainees needing particular attention, and investigate the recorded beatings and assaults and sanction the officers at fault.