International Religious Freedom Report 2017: Haiti

The report sets out the legal framework first. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religious Denominations administers the laws on religious groups, and within it the Bureau of Worship registers religious buildings, clergy and missionaries. Registration is required by law to operate and receive government benefits, but there is no penalty for operating without it and many groups do. What registration confers is standing in legal disputes, tax-exempt status, exemption from customs duties on imports, and civil recognition of marriage and baptismal certificates, which the government treats as legal documents only when prepared by government-certified clergy. A baptismal certificate carries legal authority similar to a birth certificate.

Catholicism has not been the state religion since the 1987 constitution, but the 1860 concordat with the Holy See remains in force. It gives the Vatican power to approve and select a set number of bishops with government consent, and the government pays a monthly stipend to Catholic priests. Episcopalian clergy receive no stipend, though Catholic and Episcopalian bishops both hold official licence plates and diplomatic passports. No other group's clergy receive stipends.

On practices, houngans and mambos said the government still issued them no recognised documents for marriages and baptisms, with the ministry saying it was developing a certification process suited to the Vodou belief system. The ministry had still not acted on a Muslim registration request dating from the 1980s, continuing to require financial documentation first, and Muslims said civil marriage licences remained their only legal option. The government funded maintenance of Catholic churches and some Catholic schools; negotiations with the Protestant Federation over access to public funding continued, and in November the Federation said none was available to Protestants. The government said it had no plans to extend public funding to any non-Catholic group. Prison authorities cited limited institutional capacity for the religious needs of Muslim prisoners, who could pray freely and request a cleric but were not always near an institution that could send one.

Societal sections record continued stigmatization of Vodou practitioners, including public accusations of using occult powers to commit violent crimes, with one November arrest in Grand'Anse over an alleged poisoning for a Vodou ceremony, and discrimination against Muslims in public and private hiring, reported as sharpest for women wearing hijabs.