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RFK Memorial, Partners in Health and NYU Law testified in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about abuses in Haiti and obligation of UN and OAS Member States

Washington, DC – The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) heard testimonies today about economic and social rights violations in Haiti since June 2004. The hearing included testimony from members of the Haiti-based Zanmi Lasante (Partners in Health www.pih.org), The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (www.rfkmemorial.org) and New York University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic.

The groups told the commission about the daily violence of poverty that persists despite efforts by the Haitian government and the international community. They outlined how OAS Member States have human rights obligations when acting in Haiti, especially since some OAS Member States have taken their obligations seriously at home and are in a position to provide their understanding and expertise to Haiti, but have not yet done so.

“When the international community came to the Central Plateau of Haiti...we had hope,” said Loune Viaud, Director of Strategic Planning and Operations of Zanmi Lasante and recipient of the 2002 RFK Memorial Human Rights Award. “We thought they could help the government do its job so that people would have access to clean water, to housing, food, and sanitation. Since there was no war, only poverty, we thought the OAS Member States would attack the poverty which kills people every single day.” Still Viaud noted that most Haitians believe the international community has failed to do any of this in Haiti and act as if “they are here on vacation.”

Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. It has the highest HIV prevalence rate outside of Sub-Saharan Africa. Haiti shares, together with Afghanistan and Somalia, the worst daily caloric deficit per inhabitant in the world (460 kcal / day). Nearly half of the entire population of Haiti is undernourished and the average life expectancy for a Haitian is 52.

They called on the Commission to actively engage in ending economic and social violations with a focus on the responsibility of those Member States that have intervened in Haiti. The groups also asked the Commission to visit Haiti to see firsthand the human rights violations currently occurring.

The Commission was specifically interested in whether OAS Member States were empowering and involving Haitians in the way they have intervened in Haiti. Ms. Viaud indicated their was a gulf between the rhetorical understanding of what should be done and how it is being done.

“Traditionally, the host Member State [has] the human rights obligations. Meanwhile, the international community...have none; regardless of their relative power to make change” said Todd Howland, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights and former UN human rights official in Angola and Rwanda. Howland noted that “the UN Peacekeeping mission to Haiti's yearly budget is larger than the entire annual budget of the government of the Republic of Haiti.”

Howland questioned, “How in the age where corporations have human rights obligations... could countries that had human rights obligations in their own country all of a sudden have none when working in another - either directly or through their agent like the OAS or UN?”

The Commission indicated that Haiti was “on the front burner” and that they would do their part to mobilize the international community to respond and to respond in a way that respects the rights of the Haitians.