[News] Report Finds Haitian Government Complicit in Crimes Against Humanity

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/press-releases/report-finds-haitian-government-complicit-in-crimes-against-humanity/ 
<https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/press-releases/report-finds-haitian-government-complicit-in-crimes-against-humanity/> 



  Report Finds Haitian Government Complicit in Crimes Against Humanity

April 22, 2021



      /Haitian human rights coalition, Harvard clinic release new
      analysis of state-sanctioned massacres/

/
(April 22, 2021, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Cambridge, MA)/ — Three deadly 
massacres targeting impoverished neighborhoods in Haiti were carried out 
with Haitian government support and amount to crimes against humanity, 
according to a report 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Killing_With_Impunity-1.pdf> 
released today by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic 
and the /Observatoire Haïtien des Crimes contre l’humanité/ (OHCCH). The 
report points to evidence that the gang-led attacks were resourced and 
supported by state actors, ranging from high-ranking officials in the 
Moïse administration to the Haitian National Police.

Report cover shows the image of Haitian citizens marching in the streets 
protesting. 
<https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Killing-with-Impunity-State-Sassacres-in-Haiti-19.04.2149-1-1.jpg>

The report, “Killing with Impunity: State-Sanctioned Massacres in 
Haiti,” 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Killing_With_Impunity-1.pdf> 
analyzes three attacks that took place between 2018-2020, which have 
together killed at least 240 civilians. The massacres targeted the 
Port-au-Prince neighborhoods of La Saline, Bel-Air, and Cité Soleil, 
which have played a leading role in organizing protests demanding 
government accountability for corruption and other human rights violations.

“Moïse’s government has been pushing the story that the attacks are 
merely gang infighting, but the evidence demonstrates high-level 
government involvement in the planning, execution and cover-up of the 
attacks,” said Mario Joseph, Managing Attorney of /Bureau des Avocats 
Internationaux/, a member organization of OHCCH.

The report relies on investigations by Haitian and international human 
rights experts that show that senior Moïse administration officials 
planned the attacks or otherwise assisted by providing the gangs with 
money, weapons, or vehicles. Off-duty police officers and resources were 
utilized to carry out the attacks. The Haitian National Police 
repeatedly failed to intervene to protect civilians despite the sites of 
the attacks being in close proximity to multiple police stations. In 
each attack, gangs arrived in the targeted neighborhood, shot at 
residents indiscriminately, raped women, and burnt and looted houses. 
The massacres repeatedly involved gangs affiliated with the G9 alliance 
led by Jimmy Chérizier, which reportedly enjoys government connections.

“We found that Moïse’s failure to stop or respond to attacks initiated 
by his subordinates may make the President himself liable for crimes 
against humanity,” said Beatrice Lindstrom, a Clinical Instructor at the 
Harvard Clinic who supervised the research and drafting of the report. 
“This should serve as a wake-up call to the international community to 
stand up for human rights, fully investigate allegations of serious 
abuses, and do its part to hold perpetrators accountable,” she added.

The report comes amidst a deepening crisis for democracy and human 
rights in Haiti. Widespread demonstrations have gripped the nation, with 
large swaths of the population protesting government corruption, rising 
insecurity, and Moise’s increasingly authoritarian conduct. Notably, to 
repress dissent, Moise has criminalized common forms of protest and 
created an intelligence agency to provide surveillance 
<https://lenouvelliste.com/article/225420/lagence-nationale-dintelligence-operationnelle-les-adversaires-de-jovenel-moise-sous-surveillance> 
of the political opposition. Attacks against civilians, including the 
assassination 
<https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/human_rights/rule-of-law-letters/haiti-nov2020.pdf> 
of prominent government critics, have largely been carried out with 
impunity. Although most experts 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/210213-Final-Human-Rights-Clinics-Statement-re-Haiti-NYU-HLS-YLS.pdf> 
and much of civil society agree that President Moïse’s constitutional 
mandate ended on February 7, 2021, he has refused to step down, 
insisting that an illegal 
<https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/03/09/the-biden-administration-is-greenlighting-haitis-descent-towards-dictatorship/> 
constitutional referendum take place before elections for his replacement.

The finding that the attacks amount to crimes against humanity 
strengthens the prospects for accountability. In addition to imposing an 
international obligation on the Haitian government to prosecute the 
people responsible, it opens the door to prosecutions in national and 
international courts outside of Haiti. It also means that perpetrators 
can be pursued indefinitely as no statutes of limitations apply.

“Just like Haiti’s former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier eventually had 
to stand trial for his brutal repression decades after he left office, 
the perpetrators of today’s massacres can no longer escape justice by 
relying on statutes of limitations,” Joseph added.

The UN has raised alarm that the ongoing lack of accountability for 
massacres has fostered an enabling environment for further carnage. Yet 
another attack 
<https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article250400641.html> 
on Bel-Air earlier this month bore striking similarities to the 
massacres analysed in the report.

“The attacks covered in the report are particularly severe and 
well-documented, but they are part of a widespread, systematic campaign 
of violence and intimidation of political dissidents,” said Pierre 
Esperance, Executive Director of the /Réseau National de Défense des 
Droits Humains/ (RNDDH), an OHCCH member that has led independent 
investigations into repeated attacks on impoverished neighborhoods. 
RNDDH has documented at least 11 massacres over the course of Moise’s 
presidency.

The report relies on evidence collected by a range of Haitian and 
international actors over the last few years and analyzes it under 
international criminal law. Harvard Law School students Joey Bui JD’21 
and Nathalie Gunasekera JD’21 led the research and drafting of the 
report under Lindstrom’s supervision.

Read the report in English 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Killing_With_Impunity-1.pdf>, 
French 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Massacres-cautionnes-par-lEtat-2.pdf>, 
and Haitian Creole 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Asasina_nan_tout_enpinite.pdf>.

##


          *Contact:*

*Observatoire Haïtien des crimes contre l’humanité*

Mario Joseph, Managing Attorney, Bureau des Advocats Internationaux
+509-3701-9879; mario at ijdh.org <mailto:mario at ijdh.org>

Hérold Jean-François, Journalist
+509-3727-5570; heroldjf at gmail.com <mailto:heroldjf at gmail.com>

*About the Observatoire Haïtien des crimes contre l’humanité (OHCCH): 
*OHCCH is a consortium of Haitian civil society organizations and 
prominent leaders that came together in October 2020 with a mission of 
monitoring human rights violations in Haiti that may amount to crimes 
against humanity. Members include the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux 
(BAI), the Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH) and 
individual civil society leaders and prominent lawyers.

*About the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School: *The 
International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School works to protect 
the human rights of clients and communities around the world. Through 
supervised practice, students learn the responsibilities and skills of 
human rights lawyering. Learn more at http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/ 
<http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/>. Follow the Clinic on social media: Human 
Rights Program at Harvard Law School 
<https://www.facebook.com/HmnRghtsProgram/> on Facebook, @HarvardLawHRP 
<https://twitter.com/harvardlawhrp?lang=en> on Twitter, and 
humanrightsharvardlaw 
<https://www.instagram.com/humanrightsharvardlaw/> on Instagram.


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