Global Courant 2023-05-03 21:54:16
Lawlessness in Haiti amounts to a “human rights emergency,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned, urging immediate action as the Caribbean nation grapples with a spate of vigilante killings.
During a session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Volker Turk warned via video that Haiti is “dangling over an abyss”.
“The state’s lack of capacity to fulfill human rights has completely eroded people’s confidence. The social contract has collapsed. The current lawlessness is a human rights emergency that calls for a strong response,” said Turk, who visited the country in February.
“There is an immediate need to support Haiti’s institutions by deploying a time-bound, specialized and human rights-compliant support force, with a comprehensive plan of action,” he said.
“The longer-term challenge, of course, is to build robust institutions that deliver on human rights.”
Gang violence has increased in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in recent months, fueled in part by the power vacuum created after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.
Haiti’s de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who elected Moise to the post just days before he was assassinated, has faced a crisis of legitimacy. Attempts to chart a political transition for Haiti have failed, and a lack of functioning state institutions has made curbing the violence difficult.
Deadly clashes have impeded access to health care facilities, forced the closure of schools and clinics, and exacerbated already dire food insecurity by cutting off residents of gang-controlled areas from critical supplies.
Last week, the head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), Maria Isabel Salvador, said there were 1,674 reported murders, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings in the first quarter of 2023.
That’s more than 692 such incidents in the same period a year earlier, Salvador said, citing data collected by BINUH and the Haitian National Police (HNP).
The humanitarian group Mercy Corps also recently warned that the country was on the brink of civil war, with many residents beginning to wonder, “Why not retaliate and take the law into your own hands?”
Last week, a mob lynched at least 13 suspected gang members who had been arrested in Port-au-Prince.
The Associated Press reported this week that another five men were killed and set ablaze by mobs on Tuesday in Jalousie, an impoverished area outside Port-au-Prince.
Referring to people who were in the crowd, the news agency said most of the bodies were left along a road leading to former President Moise’s home, while one was left outside a police station in Pétionville, a suburb of the capital.
“It is terrible for them to be killed in front of the police,” Jean Marc Etienne, who was standing in a park in front of the police station and witnessed what happened, told the AP. “That shows that no one is safe, that anyone can be killed.”
On Monday, Haitian Prime Minister Henry Henry condemned the continued killings by vigilantes and ordered people to “calm down”.
“The insecurity we are experiencing is appalling,” he said, adding that people should not be “drawn into senseless violence”.
Last October, Henry called on the international community to help create a “specialized force” to quell violence in the country, a demand supported by the UN and the United States.
But many Haitian civil society leaders have rejected the prospect of international intervention, as history has shown that foreign forces bring “more problems than solutions”.
Meanwhile, efforts to build the international force have stalled, and no country has agreed to lead such a mission.
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