Haiti: Human Rights Crisis - Press Conference

“I am alarmed by the ongoing human rights crisis that creates massive suffering for the Haitian people,” a UN human rights independent expert said after a ten-day visit to Haiti. Briefing reporters in New York today (16 Mar), William O'Neill, a UN human rights independent expert on Haiti, said gang violence has forced at least 1.4 million people from their homes, describing it as an unprecedented level of internal displacement. He said some territory had been recovered from gang control and that police were more visible and motivated. Political leadership, he added, appeared more unified. But he said those gains were offset by conditions on the ground that remained dire. “In camps and makeshift settlements people struggle every day simply to survive,” O'Neill said. “Sexual violence is rife in these sites.” He said displaced families frequently lack access to healthcare, clean water, sanitation, food, schools and adequate shelter. O'Neill said thousands more remain trapped in gang-held areas or near shifting front lines. Young people in those communities face compounding dangers, he said, threatened by gangs and at the same time suspected by security forces and others in the population simply because of where they live. “This places them in an impossible situation,” he said, “caught between violence and suspicion.” On youth recruitment, O'Neill said Haiti urgently needs rehabilitation and reintegration programs for children associated with gangs. He said he was encouraged by the prime minister's commitment to programs targeting young gang members but called for broader action. “Haiti must also invest urgently in violence reduction and prevention, particularly for young people,” he said, adding that many children and adolescents “have been recruited or coerced by gangs that are growing up in communities where violence has become part of daily life.” O'Neill also said he visited prisons in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince and described conditions there as unacceptable. Adults and children, as well as women and men, were held together in overcrowded, unsanitary facilities. “The conditions I observed were inhuman and degrading,” he said, calling the situation a reflection of "deeper structural failures within the justice and detention systems.” He said he remains “deeply concerned about corruption, impunity and the weakness of accountability mechanisms” across the country. Independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on specific country situations or thematic issues. They serve in an unpaid, personal capacity and their findings and views do not represent the UN or its member states.