Law & Justice

Building stability and prosperity in Haiti through justice The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) launched Haiti’s first legal observation program to observe demonstrations on May 1 st known as Obsèvatwa Libète Piblik. The program was developed in partnership with the U.S. National Lawyers Guild, deploys trained lawyers and observers to monitor and report on violations of protestors’ constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly.The BAI launched the program in response to rising reports of illegal activity by police at protests, including illegal arrests of demonstrators and violence. “Public freedoms such as expression and assembly are the base of democracy. The police routinely use unjustified force against peaceful protestors to quell Haitians’ voices,” said Mario Joseph, BAI’s Managing Attorney.The Bureau expects more protests in the coming weeks due to announced price increases for gasoline and electricity. The legal observation program, combined with BAI’s legal […]

Stephen Lewis comments on the UN’s failure to live up to its promises in response to Haiti’s cholera crisis. The UN’s inability to raise $400 million to eliminate cholera that its won brought to the country and compensate victims, “It’s a complete travesty,” said AIDS-Free World Stephen Lewis. Watch Lewis’s address below: align=”center” Full video transcription “Please bear with me as I tell you a sad story about the United Nations. It remains and institution to which I am, ideologically committed, but I feel as though that commitment is betrayed with unwelcome regularity. Back on December the 1st, 2016, Ban-Ki Moon, the then Secretary General in the last month of his ten-year tenure, in an unprecedented way, apologized to the people of Haiti for the failure of the United Nations to deal adequately with the cholera epidemic. An epidemic that had […]

BAI law thesis candidate Peterson Juillet legal observing in Port-Au-Prince, May 1. Credit: Nicole Phillips On May 1, Haitian public interest law firm Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), sent its first group of trained legal observers to monitor International Workers’ Day (“May Day”) protests in the capital city. BAI launched its Obsèvatwa Libète Piblik (Public Freedoms Observation) program in partnership with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), and National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Haitians have been demonstrating in anti-government protests for months. Police have retaliated with intimidation, violence, and unlawful arrests. In response to these violations of freedom of speech, assembly and due process under the Haitian Constitution and international law, BAI contacted the NLG for support. On Apr. 25, BAI announced their legal observer and protest defense initiative, modeled after the […]

 Join IJDH & BAI in New York for a Comedy Show Gotham Comedy Club on May 2 When was the last time you laughed until you cried? IJDH has got you covered! We are very excited to announce “A Stand up for Justice and Democracy in Haiti” with Haitian-American comedians J-L Cauvin, Tanael Joachim and Reg Thomas at Gotham Comedy Club in New York! Our goal is to bring people who care about justice in Haiti to laugh, learn and support the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI)’s human rights work. Bring your family and friends! You can buy as many tickets as you’d like! If you can’t make it, that’s ok. You can gift your ticket to a friend living in the New York Metropolitan area. We would love to […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Mario Joseph, Av., Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), Mario@ijdh.org, +509 3701-9879 (Haïti) (English, French, Kreyòl) Sienna Merope-Synge, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), sienna@ijdh.org, 509 4875-3444; +1 917 864-6901 (English, French, Kreyòl) The BAI Welcomes the UN’s Victims’ Rights Advocate Meeting with Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Haiti, Calls for Broad-Based Reforms and for Victim Assistance A French version of this press release can be found here. Port-au-Prince, April 27, 2018 – The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) welcomes its meeting this week with Jane Connors, the UN Victims’ Rights Advocate, and Lynne Goldberg, senior political affairs officer in the office of the UN Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, to discuss UN obligations to the 11 mothers of the 14 abandoned children of UN peacekeepers represented […]

TOWARDS A MORE ACCOUNTABLE HUMANITARIAN SECTOR March 21, 2018 The Oxfam sex abuse scandal in Haiti is just the tip of the iceberg of unaccountable humanitarian action, and demonstrates the urgent need for improved accountability across the humanitarian aid sector. Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) is prevalent in the aid community: one report found that 23 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Haiti have had a sexual exploitation problem. Like Oxfam, NGOs often do not treat staff SEA as a legal matter or provide remedies to the victims.  Legal obligations exist, but NGOs ignore them. As with SEA, other accountability failures create anger and tension with local communities, and undermine humanitarian actors’ effectiveness. These include failures in aid delivery, sustainability of development projects and, in the case of the United Nations in Haiti, immunity that results in impunity for recklessly introducing cholera. […]