HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The Global Justice Clinic, twenty-three other human rights organizations, and a number of individuals signed on to a letter calling for the government of Haiti to cancel a planned gang raid that it announced on Friday April 24, 2020.
In a statement to the press, Haiti’s Minister of Justice and Public Security said that residents of the impoverished community of Village de Dieu in Port-au-Prince had 72 hours to evacuate their homes and their neighborhood. The government would conduct a gang raid, and beyond the 72 hour window, indicated that they absolved themselves of responsibility for what happens in the area. There is extreme and understandable concern within Haiti that the gang raid may turn into indiscriminate violence. As the letter explains, in the past two years, the government has been implicated in massacres against civilians. Further, there is evidence that a former police officer who allegedly perpetrated past massacres has been coordinating with the Haitian National Police to enact Monday’s raid. The signatory organizations and individuals call on the government of Haiti to cancel the raid and to protect the human rights and physical safety of all Haitian people.
As of Wednesday, April 29, 2020, the raid has not occurred. However, human rights organization in Haiti and beyond continue to pressure the Haitian government to publicly declare that they will cancel the raid, and that they will address insecurity in a way that respects the human rights of Haitian people, particularly the most vulnerable.
