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(August 28, 2023, Boston, U.S.) — Three years after the assassination of constitutional scholar and then-president of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association Monferrier Dorval, there has been no punishment of his murderers, while a corrupt, repressive de facto government continues to attack dissidents and receive persistent support from the United States, and the United Nations. At the time, IJDH warned that unpunished attacks against political dissidents and the continued dismantling of democracy by regimes associated with the Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale (PHTK) would lead to violence and crisis. Three years later, PHTK associates still control Haiti and are still propped up by the international community, while Haitians describe their country as a living hell – gangs control over half the territory, there are zero elected officials, and children suffer from wasting hunger. 

Professor Dorval was murdered three years ago today, mere blocks from where then-president Moïse would be killed just ten months later. Dorval had been publicly critical of PHTK measures that he warned were undermining Haiti’s democracy and the rule of law, and had just given a radio interview calling for a different type of government. Three years later, there has been effectively no progress in finding those responsible. Unaddressed evidence theft and intimidation of judicial actors seeking accountability further indicate that impunity is deliberate. 

Dorval’s assassination embodies the harms emanating from state capture by individuals associated with the PHTK over the past dozen years. There is a direct line between the Dorval assassination, accompanying impunity, and Haiti’s current crisis. The solutions – accountability and democratic governance – were likewise clear at the time. Yet instead, even as they assert a commitment to human rights and the rule of law and write reports acknowledging ongoing impunity, international actors continue to prop up the set of actors who make both solutions impossible.

“This anniversary should fill international actors, and especially the U.S. government, with shame,” said IJDH executive director Brian Concannon. “Me Dorval lost his life speaking out against those taking Haiti’s democracy and rule of law apart. Too many Haitian lives have been lost since then to all the same causes. But so long as international actors continue to prop up the de facto government, like they supported the other PHTK-affiliated regimes before it, impunity and violence will remain. It’s time to #StopTheProp.” 

Media Contact:
Brian Concannon, Executive Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
T: +1 541-263-0029 | E: brian@ijdh.org
(English, French, Kreyol)