New Legal Complaints Target the U.S. and Brazil For Recent Massacres in Haiti:

A Call for Action by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - November 15, 2005 - Human rights attorneys, elected officials, and academics announced the filing today of two petitions with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) seeking legal redress from the United States and Brazilian governments for the wave of recent massacres and human rights violations in Haiti.  Both countries are members of the Organization of American States (OAS) and have obligations to uphold minimum standards of human rights in their dealings with other OAS members, such as Haiti.  Since the occupation of Haiti following the February 29, 2004 coup that ousted democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, suspected sympathizers with his political party, Fanmi Lavalas, have been targeted for a wide range of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, incarceration without charges, torture, and large-scale police raids on their neighborhoods.  Such extreme human rights violations have been carried out primarily by the Haitian National Police (PNH).  However, the PNH would not be able to conduct such atrocities without the financial backing of the U.S. government, in spite of their own arms embargo against Haiti, and the assistance or acquiescence of Brazilian-led United Nations peace keeping forces.

 

Brazil's Role as Head of MINUSTAH and its Failure to Fulfill Human Rights Obligations

The coalition argues that Brazil’s leadership role in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) does not supersede its responsibilities under the American Convention of Human Rights, a human rights pledge Brazil signed as part of its membership in the OAS.  Since Brazil’s assumption of leadership of the U.N. peacekeeping forces, MINUSTAH has participated in raids on low-income neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, the traditional base of support for Fanmi Lavalas and Aristide.  While these missions are reportedly designed to quell gang violence in “slum” neighborhoods, video and eyewitness documentation shows civilians, including children and the disabled, indiscriminately targeted.  An example of this presented in the petition involves a July 6, 2005, MINUSTAH raid on Cite Soleil, wherein more than 300 heavily armed troops stormed the neighborhood before dawn, killing at least 63 people and injuring at least 30 more.

 

"MINUSTAH'S role is to protect Haitian civilians," said Kasey Corbit, an attorney with the National Lawyers' Guild who helped draft the petitions. "Instead, the troops are actively participating in campaigns of terror on the Haitian people or turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by the PNH in conjunction with members of the former military. This kind of impunity cannot be allowed to continue, which is why we are seeking intervention by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

 

United States Government Arming and Supporting the Haitian National Police

In violation of its own arms embargo against Haiti, due to concerns about corruption in the police force, the U.S. government has provided the PNH with guns and financial support, leading to the deaths of thousands of Haitian civilians.  This support of a police force that is attacking the civilian population it is directed to protect is  in direct contravention of its duties under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.  “Just because the U.S. is not directly conducting the raids in neighborhoods suspected of supporting Lavalas does not mean their enabling of such atrocities should go unpunished,” said Seth Donnelly, member U.S. Labor-Human Rights Delegation to Haiti.

 

Why the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights?

The IACHR is charged by the Organization of American States (OAS) to examine and report on human rights in the western hemisphere. The Commission investigates claims of human rights violations, makes recommendations to governments, and refers cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. "Since the IACHR has jurisdiction over human rights instruments of which both Brazil and the U.S. are signatories, it seemed the ideal forum for seeking a remedy for the atrocities being committed in Haiti by or with the complicity of both nations and the UN forces," said Thomas Griffin, Esq., author of Haiti Human Rights Investigation: November 11-21, 2004, Center for the Study of Human Rights, Univ. of Miami School of Law. The IACHR recently agreed to undertake investigation in a petition regarding the unconstitutional imprisonment of Haitian former prime minister Yvon Neptune.

 

Broad Spectrum of Support for the Petitions

The coalition of advocates who support the petitions and the need for action regarding the U.S. and Brazilian governments include Representative Barbara Lee; noted historian Howard Zinn; MIT professor Noam Chomsky; Medea Benjamin, founder of the anti-war group Code Pink; and organizations like the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA), the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti. 

 

Contact: Seth Donnelly 650-814-8495  Sethdonnelly2000@yahoo.com ; Kasey Corbit, Esq. 650-892-5497   Kasey@demandjustice.org