International Religious Freedom Report 2022: Haiti

The Haiti chapter of the United States Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report for calendar year 2022, prepared by the Office of International Religious Freedom. It follows the series' fixed structure: religious demography, legal framework and government practice, societal attitudes, and United States engagement.

The legal framework is unchanged: the 1987 constitution provides for the free exercise of all religions, recognition runs through the Bureau of Worship in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the 1860 concordat gives the Catholic Church privileges and the government a right of consent over the appointment of bishops. The National Council of Haitian Muslims and the Bureau said Sunni and Shia groups had still not completed registration. Bureau Director General Evans Souffrant said interreligious dialogue was his priority.

The report's weight is on insecurity. Leaders of every community said the government did not restrict religious freedom but that its failure to maintain order hampered practice. Armed groups killed and kidnapped clergy and lay persons: an Italian nun on 25 June, a police inspector attending church on 24 July, six people including a Vodou priest in Pétion-Ville on 29 June, and ten people including artisans from the Vodou-linked village of Noailles during the 400 Mawozo and Kraze Baryé clashes of 10 to 16 October in Croix-des-Bouquets. Kidnappings for ransom continued through the year. On demography the report cites the 2017 mortality, morbidity and service-use survey: 52 percent Protestant and related denominations, 35 percent Catholic, 2 percent Vodou, 11 percent no stated preference, with roughly 10,000 Muslims and about 20 Jewish residents.