International Religious Freedom Report 2018: Haiti

The Haiti chapter of the United States Department of State's annual International Religious Freedom Report for calendar year 2018, mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It follows the fixed structure of the series: religious demography, the legal framework and the government's practice, societal attitudes, and United States policy and engagement.

The report records that the constitution provides for the free exercise of all religions and that the law sets the conditions for recognizing religious groups. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religious Denominations continued to provide the Roman Catholic Church with funds and privileges other groups did not receive, The ministry said the 1860 concordat with the Holy See obliged it to provide those privileges. Vodou was registered as a religious group but its clergy again received no legal certification to perform civil marriages or baptisms, and the ministry still had not approved the Muslim community's long-standing registration request, citing polygamy, belief in the death penalty and the adoption of Islamic names as incompatible with the law.

On society, Vodou leaders reported continued stigmatization, including open condemnation of Vodou in Catholic and Protestant schools, and Muslim leaders reported discrimination against women wearing the hijab and in public and private employment. The report notes the January 2018 arrest of four men suspected of killing the Catholic priest Joseph Simoly in December 2017, with the motive disputed between political activism and robbery. United States embassy officials met the ministry and religious leaders to press for registration of minority groups and interreligious tolerance.