Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUN / HAITI
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: UN / HAITI
TRT: 3.21
SOURCE: UNTV / MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 6 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT 2009, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
6 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hédi Annabi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti:
“Sustained international engagement is critical to enable Haiti to take advantage of a unique moment of opportunity. The country now has its best chance in decades to break from the destructive cycles of the past, and to move toward a brighter future. But it can only do so with the continued, strong support of external partners.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hédi Annabi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti:
“Over the past months, we saw considerable tensions related to participation in the polls. Today, however, the process is moving ahead. We hope that the Haitian people will take full advantage of this opportunity to make their voice heard, and to select leaders with the necessary ethical and professional qualities.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hédi Annabi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti:
“The current levels of deprivation and poverty in the country are incompatible with durable stability. If we are to succeed in our efforts, it is essential that there be an improvement in people’s daily lives, or at least a realistic hope of such an improvement.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent representative of the United States, United Nations:
“MINUSTAH’s success is indeed a impressive story. But it’s not the whole story. Much of Haiti’s progress remains terrible fragile, especially after the terrible difficulties of the past year. Haiti continues to face extreme hardships in the wake of the 2008 food crisis, the hurricanes and storms that struck the country and the ongoing financial crisis. All these factors could yet imperil Haiti’s security and seriously exacerbate the poverty and privation that afflict the Haitian people.”
11. Med shot, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent representative of the United States, United Nations:
“Haiti reminds us yet again that we should not view security and development as separate spheres. Indeed they are inextricably linked; the absence of one will undermine the other.”
13. Wide shot, Security Council
MINUSTAH - 25-26 MARCH 2009
14. Med shot, two women sitting at a table shifting papers
15. Pan right, open boxes to women sitting
16. Wide shot, two workers sealing the boxes
17. Wide shot, a room where the boxes are being piled up by several workers
18. Pan left, scale with a stack of ballots to a counter
19. Close up, three stacks of ballots
FILE – MINUSTAH - 3 FEBRUARY 2009, GONAIVES, HAITI
20. Pan right, road in Gonaives to a sign that says "refugee camp office"
21. Wide shot, illegal refugee tent camp made of sheets
22. Med shot, woman sitting with children
23. Wide shot, muddy road
24. Close up, tractor cleaning mud
25. Wide shot, car stuck in the mud with street
FILE – MINUSTAH - 6 NOVEMBER 2008, BAIE D'ORANGE, BELLE ANSE, HAITI
26. Wide shot, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) tent and people waiting
27. Pan, child's feet on the scale to nurse and child
28. Med shot, doctor with a naked, visibly malnourished child
29. Med shot, two malnourished girls sitting on the floor and eating
30. Close up, a girl chewing on a biscuit
The top United Nations envoy to Haiti exhorted the international community to boost its support, even in the midst of a global recession, for the impoverished Caribbean nation, which is at a “turning point.”
Addressing the Security Council today, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Hédi Annabi stressed that “sustained international engagement is critical to enable Haiti to take advantage of a unique moment of opportunity.”
He added that the nation, “now has its best chance in decades to break from the destructive cycles of the past, and to move toward a brighter future,” but can only move forward with the continued support of external partners.
Annabi cited five interlinked challenges the country faces in securing stability: political dialogue; extending State authority; bolstering security; the rule of law and human rights; and socio-economic development.
He also noted that over the past months, there had been considerable tensions related to participation in the upcoming polls. Annabi said that today however the process was moving ahead.
Security and development go hand in hand in the country, the envoy pointed out, and said that “if we are to succeed in our efforts, it is essential that there be an improvement in people’s daily lives, or at least a realistic hope of such an improvement.”
United States Ambassador Susan Rice said that MINUSTAH's success was an “impressive story”, but that much of Haiti’s progress remained “terrible fragile”, especially after the terrible difficulties of the past year.
Rice also pointed out that security and development shouldn’t be seen as two separate spheres, “indeed they are inextricably linked; the absence of one will undermine the other.”
Last summer’s storms have left $1 billion – equivalent to 15 per cent of Haiti’s gross domestic product (GDP) – of damage in their wake. The global recession has further eroded the country’s socio-economic situation, with remittances, which bring three times the amount of funds to Haiti as international aid, plummeting 14 percent.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is set to attend a major donors conference on Haiti that will take place in Washington next week.
