Tackling insecurity in Haiti, where gang violence has killed and injured thousands and displaced tens of thousands, must be the utmost priority, a United Nations report released on Friday said, urging Haitian authorities and the international community to do more to protect people and prevent further suffering. The Caribbean nation is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis, with more than 5.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
For the past three years, Haiti has been under attack by armed gangs that control or influence 80 to 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. According to the latest figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), at least 3,661 people have been killed between January and September this year.
“No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stressed in a statement.
“I welcome recent positive steps, such as the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council, the new transitional government, and the deployment of the first contingents of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS),” Türk said.
“It is clear, however, that the Mission needs adequate and sufficient equipment and personnel to counter the criminal gangs effectively and sustainably, and stop them spreading further and wreaking havoc on people’s lives.”
To date, an advance contingent of approximately 430 MSS personnel has been deployed to Haiti, including 410 specially trained police officers, 383 of whom are from Kenya, 25 from Jamaica, and two from Belize.
Last October, a United Nations Security Council resolution authorized the Multinational Security Support mission to help the Haitian National Police combat violence and restore peace in the largely gang-ruled country.
The deployment of the international police contingents, which are expected to include up to 2,500 police officers, is seen as one of several milestones in the process of restoring security and stability to Haiti, but it is unclear when the rest of the force will arrive. Other countries have pledged to send additional police.
According to the United Nations, Haiti needs a combination of a strengthened national police force, the rapid deployment of the MSS mission, and credible elections to put the country back on the path to security and stability.
The UN Human Rights Office is assisting the MSS in establishing and implementing a compliance mechanism to ensure that the mission's operational framework and practices are consistent with international human rights standards and that any potential violations are effectively addressed, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2699.
The OHCHR report to the Human Rights Council (HRC), which covers the period up to June, describes extremely serious patterns of human rights violations and abuses throughout Port-au-Prince, and the Artibonite Department - as well as in the southern part of the West Department, which until recently had been largely unaffected by the violence.
In the first six months of this year, OHCHR documented that at least 2,652 people had been killed and 1,280 others injured as a result of gang violence in the country. In addition, at least 893 people were kidnapped by gangs and held for ransom.
The number of victims of sexual violence, including rape, also increased in the first half of the year. According to the report, "gangs continued to use sexual violence to punish, spread fear, and subjugate the population.
During the reporting period, police operations and patrols in Port-au-Prince resulted in at least 860 deaths and 393 injuries, including at least 36 children, which may constitute unnecessary and disproportionate use of force. The gangs have also recruited large numbers of children into their ranks.
According to OHCHR, January and February 2024 were the most violent months in Haiti in more than two years, due to fierce clashes between the various gangs, driven by their quest for territorial control and expansion.
Between March and June 2024, following the escape of notorious gang leaders from the capital's two main prisons, the UN Human Rights Office documented a surge in gang threats and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and public officials, including judges and police officers, as well as their families.
In the Artibonite, the country's agricultural heartland, escalating gang violence and extortion have forced farmers to abandon more than 3,000 hectares of land, further jeopardizing Haiti's food production at a time when an estimated 1.6 million people in the country face emergency levels of acute food insecurity.
Türk urged the Haitian authorities to take decisive steps to strengthen the police and other state institutions crippled by endemic corruption, including the judiciary, in order to restore the rule of law and hold accountable those responsible for violations and abuses.
He also called on the authorities to protect children from gangs, to redouble efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence, and to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs). As of August, nearly 600,000 people remain internally displaced, including 270,000 in the southern departments of Haiti.
The High Commissioner also urged the international community to fully implement the targeted arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council to curb gang violence in Haiti.
In the Caribbean nation, some 5 million people - half the population - do not have enough to eat, with 1.64 million women, children and men at risk of starvation. Some 276,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year.
The health system, on the verge of collapse, faces serious challenges, crippled by both the recent violence and years of underinvestment, with only 24 percent of hospitals and health services in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area fully operational.
“The crisis in Haiti is a protracted human tragedy with a long and well-known history. It is one of the most disastrous humanitarian situations in the world,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message to a ministerial meeting on Haiti in New York on Wednesday.
“The international community has a responsibility to step up to support the Haitian people in their efforts to restore stability.”
Last week, the government appointed seven of the nine members of the Provisional Electoral Council, an essential step toward free and fair elections.
While Guterres noted some progress in establishing transitional governance structures and praised the first deployments of the MSS mission as a positive step, he warned that "the Haitian people are still subjected to egregious human rights abuses by gangs. Young women and girls continue to suffer appalling levels of sexual violence and abuse."
The trust fund for the MSS mission now stands at $85.3 million, he said.
“However, funding for the mission, and for the Haitian National Police, remains totally inadequate. I urge all those who have made financial commitments to deliver on them urgently. We must keep working to mobilize sufficient resources for the mission, and for the humanitarian response in Haiti,” Guterres added.
Without additional funding, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti is expected to only worsen.
“There is an urgent need for resources to support humanitarian efforts. The Humanitarian Needs Response Plan for Haiti, totaling $674 million, is currently only 39 percent funded,” he said.
Further information
Full text: Situation of human rights in Haiti, Interim report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/57/41), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, report, released September 27, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5741-situation-human-rights-haiti-interim-report-united-nations-high