U.S. reiterates call for elections in Haiti as U.N. Security Council receives grim report

If the U.N. Security Council hoped to hear about improvements in Haiti four months after it permanently removed its 15-year peacekeeping mission from the troubled nation, it received a grim awakening Thursday.

Both U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ representative in Haiti, Helen La Lime, and Marie Yolene Gilles, a leading human rights activist in the country, painted a climate of deteriorating human rights and disappearing rule of law. Gilles said Haitians are subject to raging malnutrition, kidnappings for ransom, rapes and gang violence that have forced the courts in Port-au-Prince to be closed since September.

“The two associations of magistrates in the country have deserted the tribunals until safety returns,” she said.

Gilles, who heads the human rights group La Fondasyon Je Klere, said while there are 23 known armed gangs in the capital, around a third of Haiti is under gang control.

“The freedom of movement is not guaranteed; neither is the right to physical integrity and the dignity of the human person,” she said, addressing the council via video conference from Port-au-Prince. “Roads are dangerous, the fiefdoms of armed gangs have become inaccessible to law enforcement officers. ... We witness odious killings, decapitations, rapes, robberies, embezzlement, the diversion of supplies, abductions and kidnappings. Fear reigns over university students, school pupils and the civilian population in general.”

Gilles’ disturbing look at the situation in Haiti — and La Lime’s admission that attempts by her office, the representatives of the Vatican and the Organization of American States in Port-au-Prince to break the political gridlock have failed to yield a political accord between President Jovenel Moïse and opposition groups — led the Dominican Republic’s U.N. ambassador to issue a stark rebuke.

Haiti’s deepening economic, social and political crisis, Ambassador José Singer said, is precisely why his nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, opposed the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers in October.

“Today we can sadly see the chaos that has resulted,” said Singer, who is in charge of U.N. Security Council matters for the Dominican Republic. “What are the results? A deep constitutional crisis, rampant violence fueled by illicit traffic and the excessive accumulation of small arms, weapons and ammunition, which has significantly contributed to the spread of organized crime including gangs.

“These gangs have conducted, assaults and killings and homicides, putting at risk the progress achieved over the past 15 years by a peacekeeping mission and subjecting the population to extremely high levels of insecurity,” he said.

The meeting in New York was the first since the Security Council agreed to pull out the last of its specialized, heavily armed U.N. foreign police units that had brought stability to Haiti, and replace the mission with a much smaller special political mission with human rights investigators and 25 police advisers.

As head of the U.N.’s Integrated Office in Haiti, La Lime recently oversaw the publication of a report on human rights violations and abuses by gangs and police in Port-au-Prince’s Bel Air neighborhood in November. The report, which looks at the expansion of lawlessness in the impoverished neighborhood, accused Haitian authorities of not protecting Bel Air residents from corrupt officers and gang leaders.

But most of La Lime’s focus since the creation of the new mission has been on leading the unsuccessful political negotiations.

During two rounds of negotiations in mid-December 2019 and late January with moderate members of the opposition, Moïse representatives and members of his political PHTK party, La Lime said a consensus emerged on the contours of a political agreement based on four elements: the criteria for forming a government; the contents of a reform agenda; a constitutional reform process; and the establishment of an electoral calendar.

“Despite progress regarding the nature of the reforms to be undertaken, including that of the Constitution, political actors have yet to settle on a formula that would lead to the designation by President Moïse of a consensual Prime Minister and the formation of a new government,” she said. “The lack of agreement on this matter, as well as on the remaining length of President Moïse’s term, threatens to needlessly prolong a situation that has already lasted too long.”

Haiti, La Lime noted, is about to enter its second year with a caretaker government with an economy that’s forecast to sink deeper into recession and 4.6 million Haitians facing a humanitarian crisis.

The terms of all but 10 members of the Haitian Parliament have expired, leaving Moïse to rule by executive order as the population struggles with a rise in crime. Meanwhile, the country’s 15,000 U.N. trained and U.S.-backed Haiti National Police force is facing an implosion as some members take to the streets in violent protests to decry their miserable working conditions and poor pay, and demand the right to form a union.

“The crisis endured by Haiti is first and foremost a political crisis,” said France’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N., Anne Gueguen. “Haiti is currently lacking all forms of parliamentary representations and Haiti’s political history tells us that that situation is untenable.”

Gueguen called on Moïse and Haiti’s other politicians to commit to “a genuine dialogue” — a call reiterated throughout the session by Security Council members — in order for legislative elections to be held.

Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., reiterated the Trump’s administration’s push for democratic order to return to Haiti and addressed Moïse’s push to overhaul the constitution. She said Haiti needs to hold legislative elections as soon as it’s feasible so that a fully functioning government can be formed to respond to the needs of the people.

“The Haitian people must have a voice in selecting its leaders. And further, while constitutional reforms are necessary and welcomed, they must not become a pretext to delay elections,” Kraft said.

The session ended with Haiti’s representative, Fritzner Gaspard, addressing the council. He acknowledged that Haiti is facing a very difficult time that is threatening its social order.

The domestic currency, the gourde, depreciated 22 percent last year against the U.S. dollar; tax revenues decreased 4.3 percent compared to the previous year, and there has been a massive loss of jobs, Gaspard said. The violence and political unrest that blanketed the country last year, he said, meant that the government could not achieve its projected 3.4 percent growth from agricultural, tourism and infrastructure investments.

“In this regard, the government of the Republic of Haiti has taken note of all concerns expressed in this report by the secretary-general and also supports the main observations,” Gaspard said about the written report U.N. Secretary-General Guterres submitted to the council ahead of the discussions.

Gaspard said Moïse, who just started the third year of his five-year term and has balked at calls to reduce his mandate by a year as part of the negotiations, remains committed “to reaching an agreement between the main players in the country, notably those of the opposition, in the business and civil society.”

“The discussions will continue this week,” Gaspard said. “A global agreement has not yet been reached between the players. However, it is clear that significant progress has been obtained: that of pushing the main political actors to put themselves around a table for a dialogue centered on the need to get out of the current political deadlock.”

On Thursday, Haiti’s justice ministry announced the creation of a five-member commission to address police grievances and gave it 48 hours to come up with recommendations. Moïse later announced the commission will have 24 hours.