HAITI / HUMAN RIGHTS

UN independent human rights expert Michel Forst concludes his mission to Haiti where he assessed the rights of women, children, persons with disabilities and the internally displaced in the country. MINUSTAH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:25
• Production Date: 2 September 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: HUMAN RIGHTS
• Geographic Subject: HAITI; UNITED NATIONS STABILIZATION MISSION IN HAITI - MINUSTAH
• MAMS Id: U110902a

Description

STORY: HAITI / HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 2:25
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: 2 SEPTEMBER 2011, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Michel Forst, United Nations Independent Human Rights Expert on Haiti:
“I was rather positively impressed by the outcomes of the meetings I had with Presidents of two Houses, with advisors of the President Martely and with the President himself. Impressed because I saw and I heard the announcements which have responded exactly to the recommendations I made in my report, as well as recommendations and observations from the reports of the national and international human rights organizations.”
3. Med shot, cameramen
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Michel Forst, Michel Forst, United Nations Independent Human Rights Expert on Haiti:
“Despite the efforts of the international community and important help of the MINUSTAH, the prisons in Haiti prisoners are often subjects of cruel or degrading treatment. I am very worried for the situation in the prisons and especially the sanitation conditions considering that cholera epidemic is still present, and also that for apparently purely bureaucratic reasons the latrines in certain prisons are not being emptied.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Michel Forst, United Nations Independent Human Rights Expert on Haiti:
“I can say that return of the former President Jean Claude Duvalier has reopened heavy wounds of many Haitians in the country as well as in Diaspora. I have received plenty of testimonies and I met now and before the victims. Many have submitted a lawsuit against Jean Claude Duvalier and since I have submitted a report the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has adopted an important declaration concerning the obligation of the Haitian government to investigate the violations of the Human Rights committed under the regime of Jean Claude Duvalier and ask the international Community to help Haiti in this historic occasion for its Justice system.”
11. Med shot, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (French) Michel Forst, United Nations Independent Human Rights Expert on Haiti:
“The second issue in the fight against impunity which I have to mention is massacre in the prison of Les Cayes on 19 January 2010. You know that an International Commission has investigated this issue and made recommendations to the Haitian government demanding that those responsible see justice.”
13. Wide shot, journalists

Storyline

The United Nations (UN) independent expert on human rights in Haiti, Michel Forst, today (2 Sept) welcomed declarations by the new Haitian authorities of measures in the field of the rule of law, adding that he hoped that the declarations will soon be implemented and followed by positive impacts.

Speaking to the press in Port au Prince on the eve of his departure from Haiti, Forst said “I was rather positively impressed by the outcomes of the meetings I had with Presidents of two Houses, with advisors of the President Martely and with the President himself.”

Independent experts like Forst are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and are usually called on to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories, or on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide.

On his ninth mission to Haiti, Forst also expressed hope that the future government quickly sends clear signals about the vetting of the Haitian National Police (HNP), and in particular that the Supreme Council of the National Police dismiss officers, sometimes of high rank, that have not passed the certification process.

On the humanitarian situation, the expert urged that the police receive clear instructions not to support the forced eviction of people living in formal and informal camps, outside of the procedures established by Haitian law, regardless of whether camps are on public or private land.

He reiterated his call that the implementation of durable solutions, that have already been identified by national and international actors, be announced as soon as possible by the new authorities, taking into account the public good, the rights of affected persons and the legitimate concerns of private owners.

Forst also addressed the two emblematic cases in the fight against impunity, that of Jean-Claude Duvalier and the massacre of the prison in Les Cayes. On Duvalier, he talked about the Inter-American Human Rights Commission’s declaration “concerning the obligation of the Haitian government to investigate the violations of the human rights committed under the regime” of the former President.

On Les Cayes, he said “an International Commission has investigated this issue and made recommendations to the Haitian government demanding that those responsible see justice.”

Haiti will present its report to the Human Rights Council on 13 October in Geneva, as part of the Universal Periodic Review, the Council’s review of the human rights records of all UN Member States which it carries out once every four years.