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 Haitiportal |
Haiti's Constitution and written laws meet most international human rights standards. [1] In practice, many provisions are not respected. [1] The government's human rights record is poor. [1] Political killings, kidnapping, torture, and unlawful incarceration are common unofficial practices, especially during periods of coups or attempted coups. [1]
The land that would become Haiti was first colonized by Spain at the end of the 15th century. The Spanish essentially wiped out the native Taíno people through slavery and smallpox, to which the Taíno had no immunity. An early defender of more humane treatment of the Taíno was the Spanish priest Bartolomé de Las Casas. Albeit too late to save the Taíno, Las Casas was able to persuade the Spanish government that the Taíno could not withstand such cruel treatment. This had the tragic side effect of the importation of African slaves to replace the labor of the diminishing Taíno.
Initially, Las Casas believed Africans to be suitable for slavery, but he later came to oppose their enslavement too. "I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. I came to realize that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery...and I was not sure that my ignorance and good faith would secure me in the eyes of God," Las Casas wrote in The History of the Indies in 1527. [2]
In 1697, Spain formally ceded to France control of the part of the island of Hispaniola that would become Haiti, naming it Saint-Domingue. Slavery in Saint-Domingue, France's most lucrative colony, was known to be especially brutal, with a complete turnover of the slave population due to death every 20 years. [3] According to the historian Laurent Dubois, between 5 and 10 percent of slaves died every year due to overwork and disease, a rate that outpaced births. The dead were replaced by new slaves from Africa. [4]
In 1791, what would become known as the Haitian Revolution began. Predominantly a slave revolt, Haitians finally won their freedom and independence from France in 1804.
In 1825, France's King Charles X threatened to invade Haiti unless it paid an "independence debt" of 150 million francs to reimburse France for the loss of its slaves and land. The debt was later reduced to 90 million francs but it was not until 1947 that Haiti had paid off what many have regarded as an immoral and illegal debt. To pay this, Haiti had to borrow money from and pay interest to French banks. [5]
"We're talking about 200 hundred years of this cycle of debt that Haiti has gone through, which of course has devastating consequences on the capacity of the state within the country," Haiti historian Laurent Dubois has said. [6]
The country's poverty made it vulnerable throughout its history to political instability and human rights abuses both by Haitian state officials and foreign interventions.
In 1915, following a coup that led to the mob killing of Haitian President Vibrun Guillaume Sam, United States sailors and marines landed in order to protect U.S. interests in the country. The occupation would last until 1934. "Following restoration of order, a treaty providing for United States control over Haitian finances, customs, police, public works, sanitation, and medical services were concluded with the client Haitian government," according to the Navy Department Library. [7]
During the occupation roads and other public works projects were built by the corvée labour—forced, unpaid work—of Haitian peasants. [7]
In 1916, the U.S. military started a Haitian army that would later become the Garde d'Haiti. [7] Beginning with the Caco Wars, during the US occupation, and continuing until the 1990s, the Haitian army was implicated in a number of human rights abuses against the Haitian people. For example, following a 1991 coup by the military that overthrew democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Haitian army was accused of killing an estimated 3,000 people in three years. [8] Upon his return to the presidency, Aristide disbanded the army. Survivors of the 2018 Lasalin massacre [9] allege that the PHTK, ruling political Party headed by Jovenel Moïse, were responsible for the orchestrated attack and mass murder of civilians. Schools and other community buildings were also targeted. U.S.A. Government involvement in Haiti is on-going. [10]
In 1957, François Duvalier, known as "Papa Doc", became president of Haiti, ushering in a period of human rights abuses. An estimated 30,000–60,000 people [11] were killed in the 30 years Haiti was under the rule of Duvalier and his son and successor Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as "Baby Doc".
In 1959, François Duvalier formed a paramilitary force [12] known as the Tonton Macoute, named after a mythic Haitian character who kidnapped misbehaving children, carried them off in a bag and ate them for breakfast. Duvalier authorized more than 10,000 Tonton Macoute, organized in 500 sections across the country, to maintain complete control over the population. [13] "The macoutes were Papa Doc's version of brownshirts and the Waffen SS, except that their usual uniform was blue jeans, T-shirts, sunglasses, and they carried clubs or pistols," wrote journalist and author Herbert Gold in Best Nightmare on Earth: A Life in Haiti. "They were loyal only to Papa Doc. In return, they could rob, steal, extort, torture and murder at will." [14]
The Tonton Macoute continued to openly terrorise the population until they were officially disbanded after Jean-Claude Duvalier was forced from the presidency and went into exile in 1986. [12]
The government in Haiti is known for running a slow, inefficient and corrupt system of justice. Allegations of torture and kidnapping are common, and the number of Haitian citizens imprisoned without trial is huge.
Lawyers' immunity is under constant threat. Under the Duvalier regime, lawyers were intimidated from defending their clients through pressure and violence. Courts of justice were in effect "run by the judges, appointed by the "
'President for Life' (the Duvaliers), who lacked the independence to make judgments about abuses against human rights." [15] To this day, there is still no guarantee for lawyers' immunity in Haiti, as would seem to be suggested by the 2009 unconstitutional arrest without warrant of human-rights defender Osner Fevry, [16] and the arrest in 2013 of Andre Michel, a lawyer critical of the government. [17]
Although the Constitution mandates an independent judiciary and the right to a fair trial, prolonged pretrial detention remains a serious problem. [1] Because the court system and its records are poorly organized, it is impossible to determine the exact percentage of prisoners being held without trial. [1] A study by the International Centre for Prison Studies, in partnership with the University of Essex, estimated that in 2013 nearly 71 percent of 9,921 prisoners in Haiti had not yet had a trial. [18] According to the Centre, the majority of countries in the world have percentages ranging between 10 and 40 percent of such prisoners; Haiti's estimated 71 percent is one of the highest in the world. [19]
The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally has respected these rights. [1] Many journalists, however, practice a measure of self-censorship to protect themselves from retribution. [1] During the second Aristide administration (2000–4), some reports contend that members of the press were killed for supporting opposition movements. [1]
The government does not censor radio, television, or the Internet. [1] Security forces frequently have ignored the constitutionally mandated freedom of assembly and organization. [1] The Haitian government generally has respected religious freedom in the country. [1]
Haiti's Constitution does not contain specific language prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, language, age, or disability. [1] Although some working standards exist to protect women, few resources exist to ensure enforcement. [1] Abuses against women and children are common. [1] Rape, although illegal, rarely results in prosecution of the perpetrator. [1] Article 269 of the Penal Code of Haiti [20] excuses a husband for murdering his wife and her "accomplice" ("complice") if the wife is found in an adulterous affair. [1] Wives do not enjoy the same right. [21]
The Haitian government has a Ministry of Women's Affairs, but lacks resources to address issues such as violence against women and harassment in the workplace.
In addition to suffering from chronic malnourishment and a lack of educational opportunity, many Haitian children also suffer physical abuse. [1] In 2004 the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs reported that its hotline received more than 700 calls from children reporting abuse.[ citation needed ] Few statistics regarding the wider problem of child abuse have been collected. [1] Trafficking of children also is a significant problem. [1] UNICEF estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 Haitian children per year are trafficked to the Dominican Republic. [1]
The term restavek is used in Haiti for a child sold by its parents to work for a host household as a domestic servant because the parents are unable to support the child. [22] The practice meets formal international definitions of modern day slavery and child trafficking, and is believed to affect an estimated 300,000 Haitian children. [23] The number of CDW (Child Domestic Workers) in Haiti, defined as 1) living away from parents' home; 2) not following normal progression in education; and 3) working more than other children, is more than 400,000. 25% of Haitian children aged 5 to 17 live away from their biological parents. [24]
Restaveks are unpaid and have no power or recourse within the host family. [25] Unlike slaves in the traditional sense, restaveks can run away or return to their families, and are typically released from servitude when they become adults; however, the restavek system is commonly understood to be a form of slavery. [25] Often host families dismiss their restaveks before they turn 15, since by law that is the age when they are supposed to be paid; many are then turned out to live on the street. [25] Increasingly, paid middlemen act as recruiters to place children with host families, and it is becoming more common to place children with strangers. [25] Children often have no way to get back in touch with their families. [25]
On 6 July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was killed, while his wife was injured in an attack at their residence. Reportedly, Haiti has been facing human rights and political crisis for many years. Amnesty International has now called on for immediate investigation. A UN report published in January 2021, found increases in rights violations and abuses of the right to life during the 2018 and 2019 protests. The UN called on authorities to address "impunity, corruption, structural inequality and adequate standard of living in order to restore public confidence and prevent future unrests." [26]
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of The Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, is the most populous Caribbean country. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince.
The recorded history of Haiti began in 1492, when the European captain and explorer Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. The western portion of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is situated, was inhabited by the Taíno and Arawakan people, who called their island Ayiti. The island was promptly claimed for the Spanish Crown, where it was named La Isla Española, later Latinized to Hispaniola. By the early 17th century, the French had built a settlement on the west of Hispaniola and called it Saint-Domingue. Prior to the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war which had disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported indigo, cotton and 72 million pounds of raw sugar. By the end of the century, the colony encompassed a third of the entire Atlantic slave trade.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theology and, as president, he attempted to normalize Afro-Creole culture, including Vodou religion, in Haiti.
François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician and voodooist who served as the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became more autocratic and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, indiscriminately tortured or killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.
Child slavery is the slavery of children. The enslavement of children can be traced back through history. Even after the abolition of slavery, children continue to be enslaved and trafficked in modern times, which is a particular problem in developing countries.
The Tonton Macoute or simply the Macoute, was a Haitian paramilitary and secret police force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute, who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast. The Macoute were known for their brutality, state terrorism, and assassinations. In 1970, the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale. Though formally disbanded in 1986, its members continued to terrorize the country.
Jean Léopold Dominique was a Haitian journalist and activist for human rights and democracy in Haiti. His station, Radio Haiti-Inter, was the first to broadcast news, investigative reporting, and political analysis in Haitian Creole, the language spoken by most Haitian people. On 3 April 2000 he was assassinated as he arrived for work at Radio Haiti-Inter. An extensive though turbulent investigation failed to officially identify and bring to justice the primary perpetrators, who remain at large.
Jean-Claude Bajeux was a Haitian political activist and professor of Caribbean literature. For many years he was director of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights based in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and a leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, a moderate socialist political party also known as KONAKOM. He was Minister of Culture during Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first term as President of Haiti.
A restavek is a child in Haiti who is given away by their parents to work for a host household as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. The term comes from the French language rester avec, "to stay with". Parents unable to care for children may send them to live with wealthier families, often their own relatives or friends. Often the children are from rural areas, and relatives who host restaveks live in more urban settings. The expectation is that the children will be given food and housing in exchange for doing housework. However, many restaveks live in poverty, may not receive proper education, and are at grave risk for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Madame Max Adolphe was the right hand woman of former Haitian president François Duvalier, who used the nickname "Papa Doc". In 1961 she and Aviole Paul-Blanc were elected to Parliament, becoming the first female MPs in Haiti. She was born in Mirebalais, Haiti.
Diplomatic relations between Canada and Haiti were established in 1954. During the unsettled period from 1957 to 1990, Canada received many Haitian refugees, who now form a significant minority in Quebec. Canada participated in various international interventions in Haiti between 1994 and 2004, and continues to provide substantial aid to Haiti. Both nations are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, Organization of American States and the United Nations, and are the only independent French-speaking countries in the Americas.
The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected eight months earlier in the 1990–91 Haitian general election, was deposed by the Armed Forces of Haiti. Haitian military officers, primarily Army General Raoul Cédras, Army Chief of Staff Philippe Biamby and Chief of the National Police, Michel François led the coup. Aristide was sent into exile, his life only saved by the intervention of U.S., French, and Venezuelan diplomats. Aristide would later return to power in 1994.
The St. Jean Bosco massacre took place in Haiti on 11 September 1988. At least 13 people were killed and around 80 wounded in a three-hour assault on the Saint-Jean Bosco church in Port-au-Prince, which saw the church burned down.
The September 1988 Haitian coup d'état took place on 18 September 1988, when a group of non-commissioned officers in the Haitian Presidential Guard overthrew General Henri Namphy and brought General Prosper Avril to power. Namphy had been a member of the National Council of Government from 1986 until the February 1988 inauguration of Leslie Manigat, who had won the military-controlled 1988 general election. Namphy had overthrown Manigat in the June 1988 coup d'état when Manigat sought to exercise his constitutional right to control military assignments.
The Sack Man is a figure similar to the bogeyman, portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away.
Roger Lafontant was the former leader of the Tonton Macoutes and a former minister in the government of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. He was the leader of an attempted coup d'état in January 1991, an effort which ultimately led to his death.
Sexual violence in Haiti is a common phenomenon today, making it a public health problem. Being raped is considered shameful in Haitian society, and victims may find themselves abandoned by loved ones or with reduced marriageability. Until 2005, rape was not legally considered a serious crime and a rapist could avoid jail by marrying his victim. Reporting a rape to police in Haiti is a difficult and convoluted process, a factor that contributes to underreporting and difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics about sexual violence. Few rapists face any punishment.
Slavery in Haiti began after the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the island in 1492 with the European colonists that followed from Portugal, Spain and France. The practice was devastating to the native population. Following the indigenous Tainos' near decimation from forced labor, disease and war, the Spanish, under initial advisement of the Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas and with the blessing of the Catholic church, began engaging in earnest during the 17th century in the forced labor of enslaved Africans. During the French colonial period, beginning in 1625, the economy of Saint-Domingue, was based on slavery; conditions on Saint-Domingue became notoriously bad even compared to chattel slavery conditions elsewhere.
Haiti's National Truth and Justice Commission began its operations in April 1995 and ended in February 1996. The country's once diverse and lively civil society had been tarnished greatly as a result of the ousting of its first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, by its military forces. This deposing of President Aristide is widely known as a coup d'état, and from 1991 to 1994, the country became known for its weak civilian government. The army was determined to return Haiti to the intimidated society existing during the Duvalier dictatorship seven years prior.
The Duvalier dynasty was an autocratic hereditary dictatorship in Haiti that lasted almost 29 years, from 1957 until 1986, spanning the rule of the father-and-son duo Dr. François Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier.
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