19278: Kalra: RFK Calls for a UN Peace-Building Mission to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Monika Kalra <monika@rfkmemorial.org>

THE NEED FOR A UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY MANDATED PEACE-BUILDING
MISSION TO HAITI

The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights

General Assembly Resolution

The United Nations should adopt a General Assembly resolution to
establish a U.N. mission that works to build durable peace in Haiti.
The current situation in Haiti demands a proactive mission that
recognizes that previous political solutions did not sufficiently
address Haiti's systemic poverty and emphasize the full spectrum of
human rights (economic, social, cultural, civil and political) as
integral to building a durable peace.  In cooperation with the Haitian
government, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, other
multilateral institutions and regional organizations, bilateral donors,
non-governmental organizations and the remaining donor community, the
U.N. shall deploy a police, political, and human rights presence to
develop and implement a plan that measurably builds the Haitian
government's capacity to respond to its citizens' rights, including, but
not limited to the right to health, water, education, life, security of
person, liberty, and due process.  The overall goal of this mission
should be to engage in building a human rights culture and democracy in
Haiti which will lead to sustainable peace.

Examining past U.N. missions to Haiti, the future mission to Haiti must
include a clear exit strategy that enumerates benchmarks to measure the
completion of specific mission programmatic objectives.

Mandate of the U.N. Mission

To contribute towards international efforts to protect and promote human
rights in Haiti, with particular attention to the extreme poverty and
weakness of government institutions, the following programs will be
implemented: The Right to Health, The Right to Water and Sanitation, The
Right to Education, The Right to Security of Person and The Right to
Liberty and Due Process programs.  All programs in Haiti should include
a component which enables Haitians to articulate their human rights.
The U.N. mission and its partners will work to build the capacity of the
ministries responsible for responding to those rights and a complaint
mechanism will be established to ensure that those rights are being
realized.

The Right to Health

Noting that the Haitian Constitution guarantees the right to health  and
also recognizing the dire health indicators in Haiti, including the
highest HIV prevalence rate in the hemisphere and the highest mortality
rate for children in the hemisphere, the U.N. mission must work to build
the capacity of the Ministry of Health to realize their citizens' right
to health.  The Right to Health Program will be charged with increasing
the number of Haitians who have access to medical care and decreasing
infant mortality rates.

The Right to Water and Sanitation

Deriving the right to water and sanitation from the right to health and
noting that Haiti ranks 147th out of 147 countries in the Water Poverty
Index and noting the high prevalence of deaths associated with water
borne diseases, the U.N. mission must provide adequate resources and
support to build the Ministry of Public Works' capacity to respond to
its citizens right to water and sanitation.  Goals for the Right to
Water program should include increasing the Haitians' access to potable
water and in turn decreasing the number of deaths associated with water
borne diseases.

The Right to Education

As guaranteed by the Haitian Constitution  and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child to which Haiti is a party, Haitians have a
fundamental right to education.  Recognizing the extremely low literacy
rate in Haiti and the percentage of children enrolled in school, the
U.N. mission would be charged with providing support and resources to
build the Ministry of Education's capacity to respond to its citizens'
right to education.  The Right to Education program would work to
increase the number of Haitian children enrolled in school, set clear
standards to measure the quality of education, and increase Haiti's
literacy rate.

The Right to Security of Person

The Haitians' right to security of person is provided for in the Haitian
Constitution  and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR)  which the Haitian government is a state party. The
current climate of violence in Haiti, including recent attacks on police
stations throughout Haiti, highlights that the police force is under-
staffed and under-equipped to protect its citizens.  (Note that 5000
police officers are charged with protecting the rights of eight million
Haitians, whereas New York City which has a similar population has a
force of 36,000 police officers).

The U.N. should deploy an international civilian police force to
establish order, implement a disarmament and demobilization of irregular
forces, and build the capacity of the Haitian police force.  The Right
to Security of Person program will provide adequate resources and
support, including an international civilian police presence, to bring
and end to the current violence by disarming civilian combatants.
Capacity building efforts will include recruiting and training a
sufficient number of policemen to insure the long term security of the
Haitian population.

The Right to Liberty and Due Process

The rights to liberty and due process are protected by the Haitian
Constitution  and the ICCPR.  The history of the judicial system in
Haiti developed under almost 200 years of dictatorship and grossly lacks
the personnel and professionalism to combat impunity and fulfill its due
process obligations as evidenced by the doubling of the number of
inmates detained since 1995 (80% of which are awaiting disposition of
their cases).   The U.N. mission will work with the Ministry of Justice
to build its capacity to reach and give access to its citizens' human
rights.

Overall Goals for Each Program

Each program should include a human rights education component which
enables citizens to articulate their human rights, understand which
Ministry is responsible for providing those rights and gain working
knowledge of how to file complaints at the local and national level if
those rights are violated.  In accordance, each program must create a
complaint mechanism within the relevant ministry or state institution
(police prosecution, judiciary) which will not only receive complaints
but have the capacity to investigate and reach resolutions to those
complaints.  Finally, to facilitate transparency within the government,
each program will create and implement a mechanism, accessible by
Haitian citizens, to monitor the influx of funds and output of services
for those funds.

Program Benchmarks

In order to monitor the efficacy of the mission, benchmarks for each
program will need to be met as part of an exit strategy.  The benchmarks
for each program should include, improving the independent indicators
that denote progress towards achieving the Haitians' rights.  For
example, the Right to Health program should establish a base line
percentage to determine an increase in access to medical care and a
decrease in infant mortality, as set forth at the onset of the program.
The program could determine a forty percent increment measure for both
indicators as the goal.  Each program would go through a similar process
of establishing and meeting benchmark indicators.

As part of an exit strategy, each program would have to demonstrate that
the complaint mechanism was functioning and that citizens were utilizing
the complaint structure and receiving an adequate resolution to their
complaint.

Conclusion

The U.N. mission will be deployed to address the present political
violence and violence engendered by poverty, both of which are taking
innocent lives on a daily basis.  Building the respect for the full
spectrum of human rights will create the environment for free and fair
elections in Haiti and lead to a human rights culture that will sustain
a durable peace and democracy in Haiti.

For further information, please contact:
Monika Kalra Varma
Legal and Program Officer, Center for Human Rights
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Tel: 202.463.7575 x228
Fax: 202.463.6606
monika@rfkmemorial.org