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STORY: UN / HAITI
TRT: 04:19
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 OCTOBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
23 OCTOBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti / Head, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH):
“The security situation on the ground continues to deteriorate as growing gang violence plunges the lives of the people of Haiti into disarray and major crimes are rising sharply to new record highs.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti / Head, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH):
“Killings, Sexual violence, including collective rape and mutilation, continue to be used by gangs every day and in the context of ineffective service support for victims or a robust justice response. The layer of complexity added to the security crisis by the vigilante groups remains. Between 24 April and 30 September, BINUH registered the lynching of at least 395 alleged gang members across all ten departments of Haiti by the so-called “Bwa Kale” vigilante movement.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti / Head, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH):
“We need to enhance working with the authorities to ensure that the extreme over-population at Haitian prisons and their inhumane conditions are addressed. Inmates in pre-trial detention need to be processed expeditiously. As of 11 October, 94 children are held in pretrial detention, some on very minor accusations such as theft of rice.”
8. Med shot, UNICEF Executive Director, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (French) María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti / Head, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH):
“Political progress in Haiti is closely linked to security aspects, humanitarian and development. Restoration of democratic institutions through credible and participatory elections is fundamental to a lasting rule of law.”
10. Med shot, UNICEF Executive Director, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“Years of political turmoil and devastating economic conditions have led to the proliferation of armed groups. An estimated two million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas under their effective control. And they are expanding their operations outside of the capital, perpetrating extreme levels of violence in both Port-au-Prince and neighboring Artibonite.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“Children are being injured or killed in the crossfire, some even on their way to school. Others are being forcibly recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation. Communities are being terrorized ... and women and girls are being targeted with extreme levels of gender-based and sexual violence.”
14. Med shot, UNICEF Executive Director, delegates
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“Nearly a quarter of Haiti's children are chronically malnourished, which can have devastating consequences for their physical and cognitive development. The malnutrition crisis coincides with an ongoing cholera outbreak in which nearly half of the more than suspected cases are children under 14.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Fathi Waly, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“The report presents the results of an in-depth analysis by UNODC of the movement of weapons into and within Haiti, identifying four major sea and land routes for the illicit flows of firearms and ammunition, which are coming in primarily from the United States of America.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Fathi Waly, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“It is key to note that the demand for firearms in Haiti is linked to the need of criminal groups to enforce the illicit drug trade, as the country remains a transit destination primarily for cocaine and cannabis.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. SOUNDBITE (French), Mirlande Manigat, president, High Council of Transition (HCT), Haiti:
“The HCT, driven by an unequivocal nationalism, is prepared to support any initiative of the United Nations to allow the Haitian population to get back on track normal in his life.”
22. Wide shot, Security Council
María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative for Haiti, said, “The security situation on the ground continues to deteriorate as growing gang violence plunges the lives of the people of Haiti into disarray and major crimes are rising sharply to new record highs.”
Briefing the Security Council today (23 Oct), Salvador also said that in Haiti, "Killings, sexual violence, including collective rape and mutilation, continue to be used by gangs daily and in the context of ineffective service support for victims or a robust justice response.”
She mentioned that last Wednesday (18 Oct), the Secretary General of the Haitian High Transitional Council (HCT) was kidnapped in broad daylight by members of a gang dressed as police officers.
She continued, “The layer of complexity added to the security crisis by the vigilante groups remains. Between 24 April and 30 September, BINUH registered the lynching of at least 395 alleged gang members across all ten departments of Haiti by the so-called “Bwa Kale” vigilante movement.”
She also said she recently visited the Haitian prison in Les Cayes and could attest to the appealing situation.
She stated, “We need to enhance working with the authorities to ensure that the extreme over-population at Haitian prisons and their inhumane conditions are addressed. Inmates in pre-trial detention need to be processed expeditiously. As of 11 October, 94 children are held in pretrial detention, some on very minor accusations such as theft of rice.”
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti concluded, “Political progress in Haiti is closely linked to security aspects, humanitarian and development. Restoration of democratic institutions through credible and participatory elections is fundamental to a lasting rule of law.”
Also addressing today’s Security Council meeting, Catherine Russell, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, said, “Years of political turmoil and devastating economic conditions have led to the proliferation of armed groups. An estimated two million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas under their effective control. And they are expanding their operations outside of the capital, perpetrating extreme levels of violence in both Port-au-Prince and neighboring Artibonite.”
She also said, “Children are being injured or killed in the crossfire, some even on their way to school. Others are being forcibly recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation. Communities are being terrorized ... and women and girls are being targeted with extreme levels of gender-based and sexual violence.”
She continued, “Nearly a quarter of Haiti's children are chronically malnourished, which can have devastating consequences for their physical and cognitive development. The malnutrition crisis coincides with an ongoing cholera outbreak in which nearly half of the more than suspected cases are children under 14.”
Ghada Fathi Waly, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director, said that her office submitted its latest report to the Council on 17 October.
She explained, “The report presents the results of an in-depth analysis by UNODC of the movement of weapons into and within Haiti, identifying four major sea and land routes for the illicit flows of firearms and ammunition, which are coming in primarily from the United States of America.”
According to the UNODC head, it is key to note that “the demand for firearms in Haiti is linked to the need of criminal groups to enforce the illicit drug trade, as the country remains a transit destination primarily for cocaine and cannabis.”
Mirlande Manigat, president of the Haitian High Council of Transition (HCT), stated, “The HCT, driven by an unequivocal nationalism, is prepared to support any initiative of the United Nations to allow the Haitian population to get back on track normal in his life.”
