- Paul Farmer Named UN Deputy Envoy to Haiti
- UN Special Envoy Clinton to Lead Trade Mission to Haiti
- USAID Acting Administrator Discusses Diaspora Market Place
- Aid Flowing, But Food Crisis Drags On
- UN Special Envoy Clinton Speaks at Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress
- OPINION: Make the investment
- Amnesty International Appeal for Ronald Dauphin
Paul Farmer Named UN Deputy Envoy to Haiti:
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who is now the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, announced the appointment Tuesday of Harvard professor Paul Farmer, a pioneer in community health treatment for the world's poor, as his deputy. Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician, is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international nonprofit organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He began working in Haiti in 1983 while still a student to bring modern health care to the Western hemisphere's most impoverished country. "Paul's selfless commitment to building health systems in the poor Haitian communities over the last 20 years has given millions of people hope for a brighter future for Haiti," Clinton said in a statement. "His credibility both among the people of Haiti and in the international community will be a tremendous asset to our efforts as we work with the government and people of Haiti to improve health care, strengthen education, and create economic opportunity."
Farmer said he was honored to be the U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti and looked forward to continuing his work with Clinton and the Haitian government and people "as they implement their plans for a better future." Haitian President Rene Preval called Farmer "a good friend to the Haitian people for many years." "I look forward to working with president Clinton, Dr. Farmer, and all friends of Haiti on our efforts to create new jobs, strengthen essential services, build infrastructure, and enhance the prosperity of all Haitian households," Preval said in a statement. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Clinton's appointment in May to help the impoverished nation achieve some measure of stability after devastating floods and other crises. Clinton is working trying to encourage international investment in Haiti and ensure that the world delivers on a $335 million pledge made at a donor conference in Washington after four devastating tropical storms killed some 800 people last fall, causing some $1 billion in damage. Farmer holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University where he is a professor of social medicine, chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital. (AP, 8/11)
Dr. Paul Farmer, a pioneering Boston epidemiologist regarded as a miracle worker in many of the world’s most desperate corners, is taking on a new role: U.N. Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti under former President Bill Clinton. “His credibility, both among the people of Haiti and in the international community, will be a tremendous asset to our efforts as we work with the government and people of Haiti to improve health care, strengthen education, and create economic opportunity,” Clinton said. Farmer, 49, founded a groundbreaking free health clinic in Haiti while he was a Harvard Medical School student. His commitment to fighting infectious diseases in the poorest regions of the earth grew into Partners in Health, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit that treats the world’s poor and sick, from Boston to Africa.
The announcement appeared to take the 22-year-old Hub-based organization by surprise. “We knew something was in the works but didn’t know the timing of when it was supposed to be announced by the U.N.,” said spokesman Andrew Marx. Farmer is also a Harvard professor of social medicine, chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a 1993 MacArthur “Genius” award recipient. (Boston Herald, 8/12)
UN Special Envoy Clinton to Lead Trade Mission to Haiti:
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Sunday he would lead an international trade mission of private investors to Haiti in October to pursue energy and other development amid signs the nation is stabilizing. Clinton burnished his credentials as an elder statesman last week when he visited North Korea to retrieve two American journalists who had been held in the communist-ruled Asian nation and met with its reclusive leader Kim Jong-il. He did not mention North Korea during Sunday's speech to the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress in Miami. In his first major address to the Haitian diaspora since becoming U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Clinton said stability had improved in the troubled Caribbean nation, providing new opportunity for foreign investment. "I think we are really on the verge of being able to make some significant changes," Clinton said.
The United States, Canada and other nations have recently eased their travel warnings for Haiti in recognition of improving security, while the Haitian government has streamlined the approval process for business ventures, Clinton said. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund granted Haiti $1.2 billion of debt relief in June, helping ease its financial burden. Clinton said his investor mission would focus on agriculture, construction, textiles and energy, citing examples that ranged from increasing Haiti's mango exports to developing affordable fuel. Electric power is scarce in rural areas and the cutting of trees to make charcoal has led to deforestation in Haiti. As an example of projects rife for further investment, Clinton described a recycling program that turns paper and sawdust waste into cooking fuel that sells for one-fifth the cost of charcoal. Clinton also said Brazilian investors who he did not identify had expressed interest in expanding sugarcane-to-ethanol production to new areas outside Brazil, and that it was "a real possibility" for Haiti. He also promised to "hector every last dime" out of donor nations that had yet to deliver money they pledged for Haiti. (Retuers, 8/9)
USAID Acting Administrator Discusses Diaspora Market Place:
The U.S. Agency for International Development's ( USAID ) Acting Administrator, Alonzo Fulgham, addressed attendees of the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress Sunday in Miami Beach, Fla. Fulgham's remarks before the members of the International Congress of the Haitian Diaspora focused on USAID's initiatives to assist Haiti in partnership with members of the Diaspora. Other VIPs who addressed the Congress were Haiti's Prime Minister Michelle Pierre-Louis and former President Bill Clinton. In his remarks, Fulgham discussed the launch of the Diaspora Market Place, a partnership with USAID and Haiti's Sogebank Foundation that will provide $2 million in resources to support investments by members of the Diaspora with small and medium enterprises in Haiti. Fulgham also praised the Haitian Diaspora for its role in assisting with the response to natural disasters and other crises that have affected Haiti in the last year; and encouraged continued assistance,
USAID's programs support the Haitian government in its efforts to promote stability; implement democratic reforms, build public institutions, and provide access to services for its citizens, particularly in health, education, HIV/AIDS services, food security and response to natural disasters in addition to working to increase economic growth and job opportunities. Fulgham served from 1984 to 1986 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Port-au-Prince, where he worked with the Government of Haiti and local groups to enhance Haiti's competitiveness through export promotion. Following his attendance at the Congress, Fulgham departed for a 2-day official visit to Haiti to meet with government officials and conduct oversight of USAID programs. (Media Newswire, 8/9)
Lawmakers voted to more than double Haiti's minimum wage Tuesday night after long hours of debate and clashes between police and protesters, who complained they can't feed and shelter their families on the current pay of about $1.75 a day. The plan adopted fell short of the $5 wage demanded by the demonstrators, although it would more than double the minimum pay to about $3.75 a day. The raise also would include workers at factories producing clothes for export, an idea that President Rene Preval opposed. After refusing to publish into law a plan passed by Parliament in May to nearly triple the minimum wage, Preval proposed giving the garment factory workers an increase to about $3. Given the lateness of Parliament's 55-6 vote to adopt the new raise, there was no immediate reaction from the president or from the protesters.
Earlier in the day, police fired tear gas at some 2,000 protesters who gathered outside Parliament to demand a big increase in the minimum wage. As legislators prepared to meet on the issue, some of the protesters threw rocks at police and began ripping down flags of U.N. member countries near the building. Most of the crowd dispersed before the Parliament session began, with no arrests and only two reported injuries, including a cameraman who was hit in the head with a rock. Many of the protesters were minimum-wage factory workers, such as Banel Jeune, a 29-year-old father who sews sleeves on shirts. "Seventy gourdes, that doesn't do anything for me," he said, referring to his current minimum wage. "I can't feed my kids, and I can't send them to school."
The issue has been inflammatory in Haiti, which is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. But despite the heated debate and occasional violence, few people would be affected by the wage increase. Most of Haiti's 9 million Haitians who are employed work on small farms or sell basic goods on the street. Only some 250,000 people have jobs covered by the minimum salary law, said lawmaker Steven Benoit, who sponsored the bill. Still, some development experts argue that a pay increase would hurt plans for fighting Haiti's widespread unemployment by creating more jobs in the factories that produce clothing for export to the United States. With new trade advantages that allow for duty-free exports of clothing to the U.S., such factories could provide "several hundred thousand jobs to
Haitians ... over a period of just a few years," according to a report submitted to the U.N. in January. But it said that plan requires costs be kept down. The report had been requested by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and prepared by Oxford University professor Paul Collier. It is now being promoted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the new U.N. envoy for Haiti. (AP, 8/4)
Aid Flowing, But Food Crisis Drags On:
When the United Nations Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti visited the country in May, many told them that "tangible improvements in the daily lives of the Haitian people were needed to 'lock in' the peace and security achieved by the Government with support from MINUSTAH." Accordingly, in their report, the Group advised the international community and the Haitian government to work on bringing economic "rights" to Haitians. In particular, the Group called for "rapid job creation" and "foreign investment" in Haiti's private sector. The Group asked the international community to provide Haiti with programmes like the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through the Partnership Encouragement Act, a U.S. law that gives preferential treatment to U.S. goods. It also suggested that the Haitian government that Haiti set up free trade zones, where it could produce garments for export, as Professor Paul Collier recommended in his report "Haiti: from natural catastrophe to economic security."
But some say that Haiti would develop better without the international community's advice and attention. Charles Arthur, director of the Haiti Support Group, a British-based NGO that supports "the Haitian people in their struggle for justice, human rights, and participatory democracy," told IPS, "The international community has paid too much attention to Haiti and nearly all the wrong kind." According to Arthur, for years the international community has been "backing - politically and financially - the most reactionary arm of the private sector" instead of the country's poor, agrarian majority. In order to find out what needs to be done in Haiti, he told IPS, "We should listen to the country's civil society organisations, which are more linked into the aspirations of the poor majority than any other entities." Instead of setting up free trade zones in Haiti, Arthur believes the Haitian government should implement "a concerted programme to assist local farmers to produce more food for the domestic market." As he explained to IPS, the Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development (PAPDA), a grassroots organisation in Haiti, recommends that Haiti first address agrarian reform. "The Haitian government can do a lot by itself if it relied more on the dynamism and creativity of the poor majority and less on the advice and directives from the international community and the reactionary private sector," Arthur said. (IPS, 8/2, full article:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47935)UN Special Envoy Clinton Speaks at Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress:
Saying the international community has a "unique opportunity" to help the people of Haiti reclaim their proud past and shape a better tomorrow, former president Bill Clinton addressed a gathering of Haitian and Haitian-American activists on Sunny Isles Beach. Tapped this year to be a U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Clinton spoke Sunday morning during the final day's events of the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress being held at the Trump International Beach Resort. During his speech, Clinton reiterated a pledge to help the people and government of the impoverished island nation expand job opportunities and provide essential services. Clinton told the attendees that he is working with the government of Haiti on storm damage prevention and wants to change the world's perception of Haiti. Last year, Haiti was beset with numerous crises including a global rise in food prices to four hurricanes with devastated the island, killed hundreds and left thousands homeless.
The former president also vowed to travel all over the world to get "every last dime" from donors to aid Haiti. The Diaspora community sends millions of dollars to Haiti every year, accounting for a third of the country's gross domestic product. Clinton also promised that there would be significant changes coming for Haiti. He talked about plans to increase the mango crop profit and ways to mimic Brazil's ethanol production. He also suggested a way to get the children of Haiti to attend school was to set up a free breakfast or lunch program, noting that it worked successfully in other countries. Above all else, Clinton urged those in the crowd to be patient and to suppress hostilities. He said the changes will take time but "but we will get this right." Clinton's address at the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress was the first of two stops in Florida. Clinton is scheduled to speak in Orlando to a group of high school and college students Sunday afternoon. (CBS4, 8/9)
OPINION: Make the investment
For too long, Haiti has been associated with penury, violence, exploitation and handouts rather than meaningful investment. Though it still faces formidable development hurdles, Haiti offers abundant prospects for profitable ventures. If foreign and local investors were to take advantage of such opportunities, Haiti could experience the kind of economic takeoff that other countries have enjoyed. Haiti's tipping point toward order and prosperity is not as remote as it may appear on the surface. With unprecedented support from the international community, President René Préval and Prime Minister Miche`le Duvivier Pierre-Louis have decisively stepped up efforts to give Haitians a chance to transform their country. Their government has a focused economic plan that calls for investment in sectors where Haiti can leverage its comparative advantages and create thousands of jobs. They are cutting red tape to encourage the creation of new businesses. They are rebuilding infrastructure, including roads and environmental disaster protection, and expanding basic services. The recent cancellation of $1.2 billion of Haiti's foreign debt will free up resources for such priority public investments.
Security has improved markedly during the past couple of years, prompting the United States and Canada to revise their travel advisories for business people and tourists visiting Haiti.
Investors considering Haiti should note that some companies managed to thrive there even when conditions were much more dire. Cellular telecommunications operator Digicel signed up more than 1.7 million clients in 15 months. Flour milling and cement companies privatized in the 1990s are doing well. Other auspicious signs: The government is going ahead with its plans to privatize the telephone company, and a consortium of local and foreign investors is backing a project to build a 30-megawatt power plant. To build on that momentum, the Soros Economic Development Fund has launched the Haiti Invest Project, an equity-investment program with an initial commitment of $25 million. Haiti Invest has approached potential partners in an effort to expand this initial capitalization by a factor of six, and it is already considering investments in garment manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, tourism, energy and housing. The Inter-American Development Bank, long a leading source of funding for the Haitian public sector, is stepping up its support for local businesses and could back some of Haiti Invest's ventures. The IDB also plans to organize a trade and investment mission later this year to bring Latin American and Caribbean business leaders to Haiti.
Where do we see opportunities for the private sector in Haiti? The garment industry has competitive labor costs and stands to benefit from the HOPE II trade legislation, which grants duty-free access to the U.S. market for apparel and other Haitian-manufactured goods. Growth in this sector has been hampered by high electricity costs and frequent blackouts, limited access to water, transport snags and a lack of adequate factory space. Haiti Invest is considering participation in an enterprise zone adjacent to the Port-au-Prince harbor that would provide manufacturers with reliable and affordable utilities and services. This zone has the potential to employ 25,000 workers from nearby Cité Soleil, one of the capital's largest slums. High-value tropical fruits offer another opportunity. Haiti produces top quality mangoes that consistently fetch premium prices in foreign markets. However, more than half the crop spoils before the fruit can be shipped. Targeted investments in fruit processing and freezing facilities and improvements in logistics could help double mango exports. And planting more trees would yield additional environmental benefits, such as reducing the risk of mudslides.
There is no shortage of potential business deals in Haiti, whose people have proven time and again that they are energetic, motivated, industrious and, perhaps most of all, creative. Trouble is, most often they only get a chance to demonstrate these virtues when they move abroad. It is time for opportunity to arise at home. Luis Alberto Moreno is president of the Inter-American Development Bank. George Soros is chairman of the Open Society Institute. (8/12)
DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL IN HAITI: Amnesty International Appeal for Ronald Dauphin
AI Index: AMR 36/003/2009
: Ronald Dauphin, a Lavalas Party activist, has spent four years in prison without trial for his alleged involvement in an armed confrontation between government supporters and opponents where several people were killed. He is the last remaining in prison of
16 Lavalas members and supporters who were arrested in relation to the killings and other crimes that occurred between 9 and 11 February 2004 in St. Marc’s neighbourhood of La Scierie, 100km North of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Amnesty International believes that the delay in bringing Ronald Dauphin to trial is unjustifiable and ispolitically motivated. The organization opposes Ronald Dauphin’s continued detention without trial, which is in violation of his rights and urges the Haitian authorities to release him pending trial. Amnesty International also calls on the Haitian authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the 2004 events in La Scierie and bring to justice all those responsible for the killings and other crimes committed by both groups involved in the confrontation, in trials that adhere to international standards of due process and fairness. Impunity for these crimes must not prevail but justice is not served by depriving Ronald Dauphin of his rights.
The investigation into the events in La Scierie and thelegal proceedings that prevent Ronald Dauphin’s release pending trial were marred with irregularities and no effort has been made by the Haitian judicial authorities to rectify the situation. As a result, the Haitian state not only has denied Ronald Dauphin his right to a fair and prompt trial but has also denied the victims and their family members the right to justice, truth and redress. Ronald Dauphin was detained in Port-au-Prince on 1 March 2004 by members of the Resistance Front, a group of armed rebels which launched a rebellion in early February 2004 against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti. President Aristide, leader of the Lavalas Party, was removed from power the day before Ronald Dauphin’s arrest. Ronald Dauphin’s detention was made without any legal grounds: there was no
arrest warrant against him issued by a competent Haitian judicial authority and the Resistance Front had no legal powers of arrest. The Resistance Front transferred Ronald Dauphin to the custody of the Haitian National Police which kept him at Delmas 33 police station before he was transferred to the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. A St. Marc magistrate in charge of the investigation issued an arrest warrant against Ronald Dauphin and 27 other people on 25 March 2004, three weeks after his detention. The warrant sought the arrest of Lavalas Party supporters allegedly involved in the confrontation and included former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune who was later indicted as an “accomplice” in the La Scierie case.
On 14 September 2005, an investigating magistrate from the St. Marc First Instance Court published, after 18 months, his report of the investigation (ordonnance de clôture) in which charges were formulated against Ronald Dauphin as one of the alleged perpetrators of the killings. The magistrate however failed to establish the individual responsibility of any of the co-accused in the events that took place in La Scierie. The magistrate’s report called for Ronald Dauphin and his co-accused to stand trial on charges of murder, arson and “massacre” although this is not recognized as a
crime in Haiti’s Penal Code. The investigating magistrate has only focused on the
alleged crimes committed by the group supporting former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and failed to identify the victims among the former president supporters and their alleged perpetrators. Furthermore, the magistrate referred the co-accused to stand trial without a jury, contrary to the provisions of Haiti’s Penal Code. All crimes of blood have to be brought to trial with a jury. Ronald Dauphin and his co-accused appealed against the indictment.
On 13 April 2007, the Court of Appeal in Gonaïves (75km to the North of St. Marc) issued a decision criticizing “grave procedural errors,” and “deplorable thoughtlessness” in the pre-trial investigation and requesting a new investigation. It also ordered the cases of Ronald Dauphin and several others to be sent back to the St. Marc First Instance Court “to repair the above-mentioned omissions and abuses of power” and dismissed the charges against some of the co-accused Amnesty International August 2009 AI Index: AMR 36/003/2009 prompting their release from prison. More than two years later, no advances have been made in the case. The Gonaïves Court of Appeal retains until today the case file without any valid legal reason. In practice, this prevents the chief magistrate of the St. Marc Court to launch a new investigation into the La Scierie case. In the mean time, Ronald Dauphin remains imprisoned while there is no indication that he, or the other coaccused,
will be brought to trial. His lawyer has filed already with the Court in St. Marc four petitions of habeas corpus challenging Ronald Dauphin’s detention. However, the Court in St. Marc did not answer those petitions because the case file was still lingering in the Court of Appeal in Gonaïves. On 19 February 2005, Ronald Dauphin was one of
more than 400 detainees who fled the National Penitentiary when a group of armed men attacked the facility. He remained at liberty until 22 July 2006 when he was re-arrested by the Haitian police and brought back to the National Penitentiary. Ronald Dauphin suffers from a prostate condition and bronchial asthma and his health has deteriorated during his imprisonment. In 2008, the medical deputy director of the Directorate of Penal Administration stated on the case of Ronald Dauphin that “given the detention conditions and the limitations in availability of treatments in a prison, the improvements offered by the medicines administered by the doctors remain
temporary”. In May 2009, private doctors examined again Ronald Dauphin and called on the authorities to immediately transfer Ronald Dauphin to a hospital where he could receive appropriate medical care. While all of the other co-defendants have now been released (one died in prison from untreated tuberculosis), Ronald Dauphin remains imprisoned as a result of the vagaries of the Haitian judicial system.
Background information Between 9 and 11 February 2004 a group of Lavalas
Party supporters called Bale Wouze (“clean sweep”) clashed with members of the opposition group RAMICOS (Rassemblement des Militants Conséquents
de la Commune de St Marc – Assembly of Committed Activists from the Town of St Marc) in La Scierie. Lavalas Party opponents claimed that Bale Wouze killed at least 50 people. However, following his investigation, the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights' Independent Expert on Haiti, Louis Joinet (2002-2008) dismissed allegations that there had been a “massacre” at La Scierie, but instead a clash between two armed groups which resulted in casualties on both sides. No one has ever been convicted, or even tried in connection with the La Scierie killings. The case of former Primer Minister Yvon Neptune, as a co-accused in the La Scierie case was brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which ruled that the Haitian state violated, among others, Mr. Neptune’s rights to be heard promptly by a competent court, his right to liberty and personal integrity. Mr. Neptune spent two years in prison without trial and was released on 27 July 2006 on humanitarian grounds.
TAKE ACTION NOW -
PLEASE WRITE TO THE HAITIAN AUTHORITIES:
Urging the authorities to release Ronald Dauphin pending trial;
Calling for the judicial authorities to carry an impartial and thorough investigation into the La Scierie killings
and other human rights abuses and bring those responsible on both sides to justice.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO:
PRIME MINISTER
Michèle D. Pierre-Louis
Première Ministre
La Primature, Route de Bourdon,
Imp. Prosper, No.1 (Villa d’Accueil)
Port-au-Prince, HAITI
Fax: + 509 2298 3900
Salutation: Madame la Première
Ministre / Dear Prime Minister
MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SECURITY
M. Jean Joseph Exumé
Ministre de la Justice et de la
Sécurité Publique
Ministère de la Justice
19 Avenue Charles Sumner
Port-au-Prince, HAITI
Fax: +509 2245 0474
Salutation: M. le Ministre / Dear
Minister
COPIES TO:
Bureau des Avocats Internationaux
3, 2ème rue Lavaud
B.P. 19048
Port-au-Prince, HAITI
