Human Rights Reports
(and other reports)



Report on Disappearances under Jean-Claude Duvalier 1971-1986 (Amnesty International: French)

Jean-Juste v. Duvalier, US Federal Court Decision, January 8, 1988

One Year After the Earthquake: Haitians Still Living in Crisis by ijdh.org, BAI, LAMP for Haiti, January 10, 2011 

New Report on Sexual Violence in Haiti One Year After the Earthquake by MADRE, IJDH-BAI, CUNY School of Law, January 10, 2011

Haiti's Fatally Flawed Elections by Jake Johnston and Mark Weisbrot, January 2011

ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES EXPERT VERIFICATION MISSION PRESIDENT ELECTION – FIRST ROUND 2010 FINAL REPORT 

One Year Report on Transparency of Groups Responding to 2010 Earthquake by Disaster Accountability Project, January 5, 2011

Human Rights Assessment in Parc Jean Marie Vincent by Kimberly Culler and Louise Ivers, Partners in Health, December 1

Haiti Government Directed to Stop Evictions without Safe Shelter for Earthquake Survivors by Center for Constitutional Rights, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, You. Me. We., Washington College of Law, November 18, 2010. This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human  Rights (IACHR) directed the Haitian State to stop evicting earthquake survivors from displacement camps unless they are provided safe and adequate shelter. 


Haiti: Still Trapped in the Emergency Phase by Refugees International, October 6, 2010  Camp inhabitants are protesting against their living conditions and threats of evictions and objecting to the arbitrarily appointed or completely absent camp managers. Gang leaders or land-owners are intimidating the displaced. Sexual, domestic, and gang violence in and around the camps is rising. More experienced United Nations personnel and resources for humanitarian protection are urgently required. Further, agencies must focus much more attention on developing livelihood opportunities that would enable people to transition out of the camps.  
Unstable Foundations: Impact of NGOs on Human Rights for Port-au-Prince's Internally Displaced People by Prof. Mark Schuller at York College (CUNY) Faculte d'Ethnologie (UEH), October 4, 2010. With a team of eight students and a colleague at the Faculté d’Ethnologie, Université d’État d’Haïti, this study covers over 100 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), a random sample of one in eight of the 861 in the metropolitan area. Students conducted quantitative and qualitative surveys in three inter-related areas: conditions and services within the camps, residents’ level of understanding and involvement in the camp committees, and interviews with committee representatives. The author followed up with a visit to 31 camps. 
     The results show that despite the billions in aid pledged to Haiti, most of the estimated 1.5 million IDPs are living in substandard conditions. For example, seven months following the earthquake, 40 percent of IDP camps do not have access to water, and 30 percent do not have toilets of any kind. An estimated 10 percent of families have a tent; the rest sleep under tarps or even bed sheets. In the midst of the hurricane season with torrential rains and heavy winds a regular occurrence, many tents are ripped beyond repair. Only a fifth of camps have education, health care, or psycho-social facilities on site.  

"We've Been Forgotten": Conditions in Haiti's Displacement Camps Eight Months After the Earthquake (IJDH) (also LAMP for Haiti Foundation and University of San Francisco School of Law, Center for Law and Global Justice), September 15, 2010. This report presents finding from a five-month follow-up of 90 Haitian families displaced by the Janurary 12, 2010 earthquake. The initial survey was conducted in six displacement camps in February 2010. The resulting repoert, Neglect in the Encampments: Haiti's Second-Wave Humanitarian Disaster (March 23, 2010), was presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. on March 23, 2010. A second survey conducted in July compared now living conditions in the camps measured against human rights standards set forth under the Haitian Constitution and international law on the treatment of displaced persons...We encourage the Government of Haiti, donor states and international aid agencies to allocate more of their resources to met the basic needs of Haitians living in camps and adopt a rigths-based approach to relief and reconstruction. 


"We Became Garbage to Them"- Inaction and Complicity in IDP Expulsion: A Call to Action to the US Government by international Action Ties, August 12, 2010. "The internally displaced of Port-au-Prince, more than six months after the earthquake, face continuing challenges to everyday survival as well as a deep and unsettling uncertainty about the future.  In particular, three ongoing issues related to land and resettlement are prompting increasingly frequent (and highly preventable)
violations of the human rights of IDPs:  1) Forced expulsions from both private and public land without acceptable
relocation alternatives,  2) Lack of political will within the Haitian government and UN system to prevent
illegal expulsions and develop sustainable solutions for IDPs, and  3) Prioritization of profit-making and political interests over the basic needs and physical protection of IDPs.   A number of factors exacerbate the effects of these problems...."

Reports from "Haiti: The Road to Recovery - A Six Month Review" featuring Rajiv Shah (USAID, Dr. Paul Farmer (Deputy Special Envoy to UN, Partners in Health), Loune Viaud (Zanmi Lasante), Camille Chalmers (Haitian Platform to Advocate for Alternative Devlopment), and Ira Kurzban, Esq. (Chair, Board of Directors, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti). July 27, 2010

Challenges Facing Haiti's Justice Sector: Prepared for Congressional Briefing by IJDH.org, July 12, 2010 (Short report)

Haiti's Answer for Six Months and Sixty Years by Melinda Miles, Let Haiti Live. A Project of TransAfrica Forum. July 12, 2010.  Many of the agencies engaged in post-earthquake rebuilding are facing a fundamental question, whether they realize it or not. Will the millions of dollars earmarked for Haiti today be used to build a better Haiti, or will the international community simply restore Haiti to where it was before the earthquake, unchallenged in its title of “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”?  The Government of Haitiʼs Action Plan outlines concrete steps that can have both immediate and long-term impact on the living conditions of the majority of Haitians. The real solution is a decentralized Haiti and the de-concentration of the population in Port- au-Prince. It is a solution for today, six months after the earthquake that shattered Haitiʼs capital city. It is also a solution for sixty years from now, for a hundred years from now, because it creates the means necessary for resources to be redistributed in Haiti. It creates the circumstances Haitians need so they all can access basic services and employment, no matter the region of the country in which they reside. 
   It seems unlikely, unfortunately, that the Government of Haiti will solve the land policy issues that are currently preventing it from creating viable options for survivors currently living in tent cities. Even with pressure and/or support from the international community, those with a vested interest in private capacity to pressure the government.

Our Bodies are Still Trembling: Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape, July 2010. A report in collaboration with ijdh.org, madre.org, transafrica forum, University of Virginia School of Law, University of Minnesota Human Rights Litigation and Advocacy Clinic. In 
May
 and
 June 
2010,
 two 
delegations
 of 
U.S.
lawyers,
community
researchers
and a
women’s
health specialist investigated 
the prevalence
and
patterns
of 
rape
and
other gender‐based
violence
(GBV) against IDPs
in
Port‐au‐Prince
in the
aftermath of the
earthquake
 and the governmental, inter‐governmental,
non‐governmental and
grassroots responses to the violence. For
first hand knowledge
of the rapes
in
the camps,
members
of
the
delegation interviewed
over
50
survivors of rape
or
 attempted rape
since the
earthquake.
 These women
and
girls
were
 referred
to the
delegations
by KOFAVIV
and
 FAVILEK,
grassroots women’s
organizations
working
in
displacement camps
 and
poor
neighborhoods
within
Port‐au‐Prince.


Haiti Cherie Between February and June 2010, TransAfrica Forum conducted six field missions to Haiti. These included a civil society consultation, interviews with survivors of gender-based violence, and visits to camps in Port-au-Prince and secondary cities also affected by the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Each trip has revealed a startling absence of resources available to those affected by the earthquake, in stark contrast to the historic levels of funds raised by the American people and the international community. A report by TransAfrica Forum, February 2010 - June 2010

Vanishing Camps at Gunpoint: Failing to Protect Haiti's Internally Displaced by International Ties, July 14,  2010

Report on the Transparency of Relief Organizations Responding to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake (report may be missing) by the Disaster Accountability Project, July 12, 2010   “It is infuriating that so many groups continue to violate the public trust with so much cash-on-hand donated to alleviate suffering on the ground. Shouldn’t we expect more from groups that are raising hundreds of millions of dollars from a public asked to generously donate, immediately after the earthquake?” said Ben Smilowitz, Executive Director, Disaster Accountability Project
On Six-Month Haiti Earthquake Anniversary, Oversight Group Calls For More Transparency Groups Soliciting Public Relief Donations by incaseofemergencyblog.com, July 12, 2010 
Doctors without Borders Six Month Report "Emergency Response After the Haiti Earthquake: Choices, Obstacles, Activities and Finance," covers reporting up to May 31, issued July 2010

Haitian Constitution 1987 The Haitian people proclaim this constitution in order to:Ensure their inalienable and imprescriptible rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; in conformity with the Act of Independence of 1804 and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1948. Constitute a socially just, economically free, and politically independent Haitian nation. Establish a strong and stable State, capable of protecting the country's values, traditions, sovereignty, independence and national vision.

Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (includes a foreward by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-online). Via Amnesty International's pdf. 

Neglect in the Encampments: Haiti's Second Wave Humanitarian Disaster (IJDH) for ijdh.org, March 23, 2010. The gulf between the generous aid donated to Haiti by the internationla community, and the lethal dearth of aid received by earthquake victims if filled, in part, with unavoidable obstacle erected by the earthquake itself. But the gulf is also filled, in too large a part, b y completely avoidable obstacles erected by people who refuse to consult with and respect the earthquake victims, coordinate well amongst each other or effectively implement their initiatives. These refusals comprise a clear violation of the economic and social human rights of earthquake victims who have already suffered to much, and a violation of donor state's human rights obligations. 

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights testimony, general hearing before the IACHR on ESC Rights Following the Earthquake, March 23, 2010 (includes testimony from Partners in Health, RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux)

Groups Call for Respect for Human Rights, Accountability at Haiti Donors' Conference, March 18, 2010. More than 300 NGOs Urge that Human Rights Drive Haiti Aid Efforts. Letter : NGOs Urge that Human Rights Drive Haiti Aid Efforts. 

The Daily Struggle in Haiti's Camps by Gerardo Ducos for Amnesty International, March 15, 2010,  "Two months after the earthquake...conditions are dire to say the least. People are without water, food, sanitation or shelter. Resilence and solidarity with each other are the only things these camp-dwellers can rely on..."

The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti by Zanmi Lasante, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center, June 23, 2008. Summary of report reveals the United States government’s clandestine efforts to ensure that political considerations (namely the desire to destabilize Haiti’s elected government at that time, led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide) took precedence over the rights of some of the planet’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

#12 Another Massacre in Haiti by UN Troops by Project Censored's Top 25 of 2008. HaitiAction.net, January 21, 2007 Title: "UN in Haiti Accused of Second Massacre" by Haiti Information Project. VIDEO: Massacres a Cite Soleil - What's Going on in Haiti: Another View-Part 1, Part 2.  And Poor Residents of Capital Describe a State of Siege by Wadner Pierre and Jeb Sprague for ipsnews.net, February 28, 2007

Haiti Analysis Human Rights Page at haitianalysis.com. Scroll down past first story to find long list of human rights stories/links (mostly 2004 -present).

Human Rights Abuse and other Criminal Violations in Port au Prince, Haiti: a random survey of households by Athena R. Kolbe and Dr. Royce Hutson for Lancet Journal, Volume 368, Issue 9538, pages 864-873, September 2006, PDF. Another PDF.

Keeping the Peace in Haiti? An Assessment of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Using Compliance with its Prescribed Mandate as a Barometer for Success, Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 2005. via ReliefWeb

A Brief Summary of the Kongre Bwa Kayiman, February 5-6, 2005. The Kongrè Bwa Kayiman took place at Trinity College. Dr. Robert Maguire, Director of Trinity College, was the gracious host. The organizing committee consisted of Fondasyon Mapou, September 30th Foundation, Haiti Action Committee, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and the Initiative for Democracy. Among other goals, this Kongrè aimed at not only acquiring “support for the popular democratic movement in Haiti”, but also to “put an end to the abuses and the killing of innocent people…”. With Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, Ira Kurzban, Saurel Francois, Deputy Romilus Bolivar, Mario Dupuy, Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Evel Fanfan, Tom Griffin, Amy Goodman, Anthony Fenton, Kim Ives and Mario Joseph. 
The Bwa Kay Iman Uprising Against Slavery by Jean Saint-Vil, August 11, 2009

Haiti: Human Rights Investigation November 11-21, 2004 by Thomas Griffin, Esq. for the Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami School of Law. pdf. Article by Fran Quigley describing report. 

Amnesty International's Track Record in Haiti since 2004 [2004-2006] by Joe Emersberger for haitianalysis.com. "Pierre Esperance, NCHR's director, had boasted in 2002 that "I am a primary source of information for international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  ...During the first four months after the coup Amnesty failed to call attention to the evidence that a massive assault on Lavalas was well underway. Amnesty's statements suggested equivalence between armed Lavalas partisans and their opponents. For example, on April 8, 2004 Amnesty would state that "...a large number of armed groups continue to be active throughout the country. These include both rebel forces and militias loyal to former President Aristide." Amnesty criticized the de facto government for arresting "only Lavalas leaders" but it did not condemn the arrests, many of them made illegally. It expressed no doubts about the legal authority of the de facto government to make any arrests at all...It was not until a report issued in June of 2004 that Amnesty mentioned some of the facts other investigators had uncovered months earlier. It finally acknowledged that a " large proportion of the victims of violence were Aristide supporters, including members of grassroots organizations and their relatives" It finally stated that "some human rights organizations who have been active in denouncing abuses committed under the Aristide period do not seem inclined to investigate abuses committed against pro-Aristide groups". However, Amnesty failed to name any of those groups. The omission was harmful to the victims because NCHR, the most prominent Haitian human rights groups, was not only willfully blind to the campaign against Lavalas. It eagerly assisted with the campaign. 

Haiti Human Rights Report presented to International Association of Democratic Lawyers by Bill Quigley, Professor of Law, Loyola University New Orleana.  This report presents a broad overview of the current human rights situation in Haiti.  Most facts in Haiti are contested and as a consequence, nearly everything in this report is also contested.  The sources are provided so the reader can research further herself and come to her own decision.  ...The attention of the international human rights community is vital to helping Haitians regain their human rights.  In summary, all of the systems that underpin an environment where human rights can be  exercised and protected are each seriously compromised and together they create a most severe  challenge to human rights.   Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere by all economic  indicators.  The electoral process has been erased by an armed coup that replaced the elected  leadership of the country with a selected interim authority.  The judiciary is dysfunctional and  unable to perform its role as a check on authority.  The police are disorganized to the point that  no one evens knows how many police officers there are.  They are unable to provide basic  security to the country and are themselves one major source of the problems because of their lack of professional training and credible accusations of human rights reports in areas from arbitrary and political arrests to extrajudicial executions.  The prison system is primitive and inhumane and filled with people who have never seen and will not likely ever see a judge. ...Dissent and political assembly are rights that are physically dangerous to exercise.  The United Nations forces have not fulfilled their mandates and the country is as unsafe and insecure as ever.   


Haiti: Perpetrators of Past Abuses Threaten Human Rights and the Reestablishment of the Rule of Law by Amnesty International, March 3, 2004

Summary Report of Haiti Human Rights Delegation -March 29 - April 5, 2004
Summary Report of Phase II of National Lawyers Guild Delegations to Haiti April 12-19, 2004 
are publications of the Let Haiti Live Coalition based on the findings of delegations from the National Lawyers Guild right after the 2004 coup. Delegations from Amnesty International, the National Lawyers Guild, and Let Haiti Live have reported independently on a systematic campaign of repression against the civilian population.  These groups each found extensive evidence indicating that many of the victims of threats and violence are supporters of the elected government of President Aristide, members of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, elected or appointed officials in the organization or Lavalas party, employees of the government, or members of popular, grassroots organizations.  Leaders of many popular, or grassroots, organizations have been killed or threatened and many are in hiding (For a full copy of the Let Haiti Live Observation Mission Report, see www.haitireborn.org). 

Raboteau Massacre Trial was a major, though under-reported, development in international law.  Fifty-nine people were tried for their involvement in the Raboteau massacre in 1994 under the coup government that ousted Aristide in 1991. The case was represented by Brian Concannon and Mario Joseph of the Bureau des Advocats Internationaux. 

Agriculture Reports

Monsanto in Haiti Fact Sheet

Haiti Food Security Outlook No. 24 (May to September 2010) by USAID

Who Benefits from GM Crops? by Friends of the Earth International, February 2010
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops by the Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2009

Agriculture at a Crossroads (International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development IAASTD Global Report) 2009

An Open Letter to Oxfam America on its Stance on Biotechnology by 41 groups (including Center for Food Safety-US, Biowatch-South Africa, Food First-US, GRAIN-Spain, Grassroots International-US, Vandana Shiva-India, etc.), April 12, 2010

Ecological Modernization and the "Gene Revolution": The Case Study of Bt Cotton in India by Ashok Kumbamu, 2006

Various Food Ag/Monsanto Semi-Related Articles, etc

The Multiple Ways Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach by Barbara Peterson for suvivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com, February 5, 2009
Grocery Store Wars (humor) by Free Range Studios on YouTube, November 14, 2006 (Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away....)
Is Monsanto in Your Garden? by Brenda Wagner, Organic Consumer's Association, June 15, 2010
Food Freedom -foodfreedom.wordpress.com (Organic Farming gives Indian Farmers Greater Financial Security)