On Tuesday, GENEVA, CMC -Haiti’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Justin Viard, welcomed the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk. Turk had earlier warned that the scale of human rights abuses is unprecedented in modern Haitian history.
“The escalation of violence has had a devastating impact on the population. In a video message to the UN Human Rights Council, Turk said this impacts all human rights.
“This session on Haiti is taking place at a critical moment for the country. An alarming situation has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks, as documented in the report presented by my Office today,” he said.
Viard told the UN Human Rights Council that the report underscored the profound challenges that Haitians face.
Viard said that the international community and Haiti must act together to address both the gangs and the root causes of the crisis, which include widespread unemployment, a failing educational system, and food insecurity.
“We must move from words to concrete actions. We cannot want Haiti to one day appear in a page of history as an example of the international community’s powerlessness or the abandonment of the population of a UN Member State.”
The UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, answered questions from country and civil society representatives and spoke of engagement around the UN-backed multinational support mission that will assist the Haitian National Police in ensuring that it complies with relevant international human rights standards.
“All this means that the capacities of the human rights service will require more strengthening in certain areas, particularly, for example, violence against children,” she said.
The High Commissioner’s designated expert on the human rights situation in Haiti, William O’Neill, told the Human Rights Council meeting that security was the chief concern raised and “everything else flows from that.”
He said the airport in Port-au-Prince had been closed for more than four weeks while gangs controlled access to all major roads in and out of the city, meaning that “there is no escape (by) air, land or sea.”
O’Neill reported that Haiti’s largest hospital has been emptied, “and today we heard that a gang has overtaken and taken over the whole premises, what’s left of it.”
He highlighted the deployment of the UN-backed multinational mission and emphasized its supporting role, stating that it is “not an occupation.”
He said although the mission will boost Haiti’s police, the national force will also need intelligence support, assets such as drones, and the means to intercept gang communications and halt illicit financial flows to them.
“They need some vetting. There’s some Haitian National Police, unfortunately, that are still in connivance with the gangs, and that’s got to be addressed.”
The justice system, currently “on its knees,” will also need assistance with investigating and prosecuting gang leaders when it is back to functioning, O’Neill said, urging countries to work to stop the flow of arms and ammunition to Haiti’s gangs.
He noted that some representatives also pointed to the need for sanctions against the people who sponsor the gangs.
“If we take those three measures—the support service for the police, sanctions, and arms embargo—we may begin to turn around the momentum in a positive direction and stop it from this slide that we’ve seen intensify over the last few weeks,” he said.
The rights expert also called for greater support for the US$674 million humanitarian appeal for Haiti, which is currently around seven percent funded.
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