Half-Hour for Haiti: Remember Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

Today is a very sad anniversary: two years ago, on August 12, 2007, human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was kidnapped in Haiti. There has been no sign of Lovinsky since a few days after his disappearance, and there has never been an effective investigation into his disappearance. Although two suspects were arrested last year for possession of his cell phone, the arrests have not led to any further arrests or information about Lovinsky. Lovinsky was a close friend and collaborator with BAI and IJDH, and also an inspiration: week after week he organized demonstrations and brought people together to fight for the rights of Haiti’s poor majority, with his potent combination of in-depth analysis, persistence and non-violence.

Thanks to everyone who sent us letters asking UN Special Haiti Envoy Bill Clinton to speak up on behalf of Ronald Dauphin. The response was very light, perhaps because it is summer. But we need many more letters if we are going to show President Clinton that people care about Mr. Dauphin and other political prisoners in Haiti. So please take a moment to write a letter or email. We’ll collect letters through the end of this week, and mail them out on Monday. Click here for more information and a sample letter.

On Sunday, Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health and IJDH Board Member, was named UN Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti (Bill Clinton’s #2). We do not know the details of Paul’s role, but I am confident that he will read the copy of your letters to President Clinton that we will send him.

This week we are insisting on justice for Lovinsky (if Lovinsky were here, he would say to write for Ronald Dauphin first). There are demonstrations for Lovinsky planned today, Wednesday, at the Brazilian consulates in Los Angeles, by Global Women’s Strike) and in San Francisco, by the Haiti Action Committee), please attend those if you can (and sorry for the late notice). If you cannot attend the protests, please follow Haiti solidarity activist Seth Donnelly’s alert to call the U.S. State Department Haiti Desk:

Dear friends,

This upcoming August 12th marks the 2nd year anniversary of the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, one of Haiti's bravest and most outspoken human rights leaders. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants two years ago after meeting with a US human rights delegation. The current Haitian government, led by President Preval, and the UN occupation forces in Haiti have not carried out a professional investigation to locate him. There is still some hope that Lovinsky may be alive. After all, there were people who "disappeared" in Latin America for considerable periods of time and were later recovered alive, due to solidarity efforts.

Please take 5 minutes of your time and contact Stephanie Robinson, a US State Department official on the "Haiti Desk". She can be reached at ph: 202-647-4755 or at robinsonsl2@state.gov. The message to her is simple:

"We are deeply concerned about the political disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine in Port-au-Prince on August 12th, 2007. We urge the Obama Administration and the State Department to support a professional and thorough investigation by all relevant authorities in Haiti, including the UN occupation forces (MINUSTAH). While it is true that Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is a Haitian citizen, he was "disappeared" for speaking out against the coup that removed President Aristide on February 29th, 2004-- a coup that was made possible by the misguided foreign policy of the Bush Administration. Therefore, it is important for the current Obama Administration to stand up for human rights in Haiti, just as it professes to do in Iran and elsewhere."

Thanks!

For more information about the Half-Hour For Haiti program, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) or human rights in Haiti, see our website, www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action Alerts (1-

2 per month), send an email to HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.

Sorry it has been so long since our last alert. This has been a very busy time at IJDH and BAI. We’ve moved our Health and Human Rights in Prisons Project up several levels, and expect to quadruple our Haiti legal staff this month.

We are moving forward with old cases, especially that of Jimmy Charles, a grassroots activist murdered in police custody in 2005. We are almost done redesigning our website, we have a lot of photos of our work posted on flickr and we launched the Lawyers Committee for Justice in Haiti on Linked-In.

The best news since our last alert is victory in the debt cancellation fight! On June 30, the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the IMF announced $2.1. billion in debt cancellation. Other holders of Haiti’s debt announced smaller cancellations soon thereafter. Click here for details. Everyone who made this possible by writing, calling, faxing, demonstrating etc. etc. over the past three years should take pride in $1 million per week staying in Haiti instead of going to the banks.

The saddest news is the passing of one of our heroes, Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, on May 29. We have a special section on our website, with photos, tributes and articles about Fr. Gerry, who inspired us and so many others to fight for justice for Haitians in Haiti and the U.S. The most outrageous news is the shooting by MINUSTAH troops at Fr. Gerry’s June 17 funeral in Haiti, which killed a bystander.

There has still been no progress on TPS, despite more people joining the call for it, including more Senators, Representatives, and newspaper editorial boards. There’s a de facto halt on non-criminal deportations, but no official change of status for the 30,000 Haitians in the U.S. with final deportation orders.

This Week’s Alert: yesterday former President Bill Clinton returned from North Korea with journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who had spent five months imprisoned in a guest house on  charges that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had called “baseless.” Let’s encourage President Clinton, now the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, to make the same effort to help free Haitian political prisoner Ronald Dauphin, who has been held illegally for nine times longer, without a trial.

Mr. Dauphin, a Lavalas grassroots activist, was arrested by paramilitary thugs two days after Haiti’s February 2004 coup d’état. He has spent over four years in jail without a trial. His case has not even had a judge assigned to it, or had a single hearing, since April 2007. Mr. Dauphin is sick and even the prison doctor says he needs outside treatment, but that has been refused. On June 10, Rep. Maxine Waters wrote two excellent letters, one to Haiti’s Prime Minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, the other to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, joining 51 organizations and two City Councils that wrote to President Préval in December, and hundreds who signed the on-line petition last year calling for justice for Ronald Dauphin. For details on Mr. Dauphin’s legal status, click here.

Please write to President Clinton, asking him to make the same effort for Ronald Dauphin as he did for Euna Lee and Laura Ling. A model letter is below, feel free to adapt it to your personal knowledge and interests. Send the letter to us, and we’ll put it in our package for President Clinton. The most effective letters will be personalized, and signed (you can mail hard copies or email scans), second-best is an email. Our postal address is PO Box 745, Joseph, Oregon, 97846, email is HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.

The Honorable William J. Clinton
55 West 125th Street
New York, N.Y. 10027

Re: Haitian Political Prisoner Ronald Dauphin

Dear President Clinton:

I am writing to congratulate you on your successful efforts to obtain freedom for journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, and to request that you make similar efforts for Haitian political prisoner Ronald Dauphin, who has been imprisoned nine times longer in worse conditions without a trial, and is suffering from illness that cannot be treated in the prisons.

Mr. Dauphin, a grassroots activist with the Fanmi Lavalas party and a former security official, was arrested by paramilitary thugs on March 1, 2004, the day after Haiti’s February 2004 coup d’état. Mr. Dauphin was formally charged in 2005, but on April 13, 2007, the Appeals Court ordered the Trial Court to correct the “grave procedural errors,” “violations of the right to defense,” and “deplorable thoughtlessness” of the charging document. Since then the case has been stuck in legal limbo and has not advanced a single step- it does not even have a Trial Court judge assigned to it.

Mr. Dauphin’s health is failing. A human rights delegation from California saw Mr. Dauphin during a visit to the National Penitentiary on April 16. The delegation included a nurse and an emergency medical technician, who examined Mr. Dauphin and concluded that he suffered from multiple serious and perhaps life-threatening health problems. Mr. Dauphin even lost consciousness during the examination. The Penitentiary doctor has concluded that Mr. Dauphin requires treatment outside the hospital, but that has not been provided.

As UN Special Envoy to Haiti, you have a unique opportunity to bring Mr. Dauphin’s injustice to the attention of Haitian authorities and UN personnel working on justice and prison issues. Please do not let Mr. Dauphin’s illegal indefinite detention turn into a death sentence. Urge your contacts in the Haitian government and the UN to ensure that Ronald Dauphin is immediately transported to a hospital for full treatment of his illness, and that the case against him be either brought to a speedy trial or dismissed.

Sincerely,

________________________________________________________

For more information about the Half-Hour For Haiti program, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) or human rights in Haiti, see our website, www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action Al erts (about 2 per month), send an email to HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.

www.pih.org

www.ijdh.org

Tonight at 7 p.m. on New England Cable News (NECN)

Change Haiti Can Believe In
with

Paul Farmer, Matt Damon, Linda Dorcena Forry, and Brian Concannon, Jr.
moderated by Amy Goodman

Presented in part by Partners In Health
and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health; actor and activist Matt Damon, who visited Haiti to assist victims devastated by hurricanes; Massachusetts State Representative and Haitian American Linda Dorcena Forry; and Brian Concannon, Jr., director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, share their stories of eradicating disease and injustice in one of the world's poorest nations, and discuss how changes in U.S. policy can help to build strength and prosperity. Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, moderates. 

This event was recorded live on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, MA, in the wake of the historic election of President Barack Obama.

Find your local NECN station: http://www.necn.com/channel

Or watch anytime online via the Health & Social Justice Video Network

To learn about the joint work of Partners In Health and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, visit the Health and Human Rights Prison Project page.

WATCH AND FORWARD THIS VIDEO TO A FRIEND

Half-Hour for Haiti: Call The White House Today to Urge Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians Now!

Update: Good news first. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an aid package that includes paying Haiti’s World Bank debt service through the first half of this year. See the Jubilee USA Press Release for details. That covers Haiti’s remaining debt service on its multilateral loans, if Haiti reaches completion point for debt relief as scheduled. That may change this summer, and we will respond then, but for now pat yourself on the back if you have called, emailed or faxed to make this victory possible.

Sort of good news: immigration lawyers have reported that non-criminal deportations of Haitians have stopped. During a visit to Haiti on April 16, Secretary of State Clinton acknowledged the burden that deportation would place on Haitians, and promised to study the possibility of TPS.

Bad news: Haiti’s elections. We have not had the time to write on these yet, but will have a section on www.HaitiJustice.org with the best articles and analyses by the end of the day.

Upcoming Events: Mario Joseph of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and Brian Concannon of IJDH are speaking twice in New York next week, Wednesday May 6 in Brooklyn and Thursday May 7 in Manhattan. We also have a fundraiser in Roseland New Jersey on Monday May 4.

Past Events: Mario Joseph gave a great speech (in English) at the Center for Justice & Accountability’s 10^th Annual Event on March 17. The text is available here. IJDH joined Partners in Health, the RFK Memorial Human Rights Center and NYU Law School’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice in Washington for a standing-room-only Congressional Staff briefing titled A Human Rights Approach to Development Assistance on April 15. The Briefing Paper is here. IJDH Board Member Dr. Paul Farmer and Brian Concannon wrote Time to Deal With Haiti for Foreign Policy in Focus’ special section on the Summit of the Americas.

This Week’s Alert: is contributed by Steve Forester of Miami, who has joined IJDH to run our “Stop Deportations Now” campaign. Steve has been working tirelessly (along with many other committed activists) to keep TPS on the radar screen of the U.S. press, the Obama Administration, and Congress. Please help him out by calling this week.

White House Comments: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461

We know that TPS is on the White House’s radar screen, and now is the time to make our voices heard, so please call TODAY TO URGE THE PRESIDENT TO "GRANT HAITIANS TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS (TPS)!"

Early last Fall Haiti was devastated by four catastrophic hurricanes/tropical storms hitting within a month, killing hundreds, leaving thousands homeless and hungry, inundating towns and cities, destroying 15% of Haiti s GDP, causing over $1 billion in damages.

When such disasters make deportations unsafe, TPS is appropriate; others have received it, Haitians never. Now is the time.

South Florida leaders of both parties support TPS, as do the editorial boards of the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle; the Congressional Black Caucus and many others (click here for fact sheet on deportations).

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recently that the Administration is actively considering TPS to keep the remittances flowing which are so important to Haiti’s citizens and recovery.

Thousands of Haitian immigrants have final orders of deportation and no work permits, making it difficult to support families here or relatives in Haiti.

Please call the White House at 202 456 1111 to respectfully ask President Obama to “Grant Haitians Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Now!”

And be on the lookout for information about a May 13 rally in Washington, D.C. activists are organizing to push for TPS!

For more information, e-mail Steven Forester at steveforester@aol.com.

Thank you! Call today

For more information about the Half-Hour For Haiti program, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) or human rights in Haiti, see our website, www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action Alerts (about 2 per month), send an email to HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.

Fighting for Justice in Haiti
Thursday, May 7, 2009 

6:30pm - 8:30pm

New York University School of Law, Furman Hall, Room 212

245 Sullivan Street, between West 4th and West 3rd Streets

Mario Joseph, Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer, and Brian Concannon, a U.S. lawyer who spent nine years in Haiti, will discuss the fight for justice for poor Haitians. This fight is waged in Haiti, one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world, but also abroad, where powerful countries like the U.S. have undermined justice and democracy in Haiti by imposing economic policies and deposing uncooperative Haitian governments.

The speakers will also discuss the fight for temporary protected status for the 30,000 Haitians currently subject to deportation from the U.S.

Light refreshments following the presentations. This event is free and open to the public. A photo ID is required to enter the building.

Jistis in Haiti

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 7pm

1583 Albany Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Mario Joseph, Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer, is Managing Attorney of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, which represents political prisoners and victims of political persecution in Haiti. Brian Concannon spent 8 years in Haiti and now directs the US-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.  Mario and Brian have collaborated on several groundbreaking cases in Haitian, U.S. and international courts that have convicted human rights abusers, freed political prisoners and forced the Haitian justice system to function for the majority of Haitians who are poor.

Mario and Brian will speak about their work establishing the rule of law in Haiti as a bulwark against the natural, political, and economic disasters that regularly beset the country. They will also discuss what people in the U.S. can do to support this vital work. 

For more information, contact Haiti Liberte at 718..., or editor@haitiliberte.com

Editor: Emira Woods and Emily Schwartz Greco

Foreign Policy In Focus

www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6062

When President Barack Obama went to Trinidad for the Summit of Americas, he brought the promise of "change" to a Latin America policy that has brought suffering to our neighbors while reducing U.S. influence and moral standing in the hemisphere. Change would be especially welcome to Haitians, who have suffered their usual unfair share of political and economic instability from these policies. But Haitians are still waiting to see whether the promised change will extend beyond ending the illegal and destructive policies of the last eight years, and include a shift away from U.S. policies that have failed both our oldest neighbor and our highest ideals for over two centuries.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a down-payment on the promise of change shortly before the summit. Speaking at the Haiti Donors' Conference at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, Clinton pledged $50 million in aid to Haiti, including $20 million to cover Haiti's expected 2009 debt service to the IDB and the World Bank. The debt relief measure rights a longstanding wrong: Over half of the loans Haiti is repaying were given to prop up dictators friendly to the U.S. but brutal to their citizens. Until recently, Haiti was repaying these loans at a clip of $1 million a week, diverting funds from urgent priorities like health care, education, and economic development.

This money isn't in the bank yet. The aid package needs congressional approval, and if Haiti is unable to jump through all the hoops of the World Bank's debt relief program by June, its debt service this year will increase. But the announcement itself is a welcome departure from the Bush administration's policies.

Bush's Approach

In 2001, the Bush administration imposed a development assistance embargo on Haiti because it didn't like the economic policies of Haiti's democratically elected government. The embargo stopped urgently needed government programs — a Partners In Health study found that canceling IDB water projects in just one city (Port de Paix) had a devastating impact on health in the area. In 2004, U.S. officials forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide aboard a clandestine flight to Africa and placed a Bush supporter from Florida at the head of Haiti's government. Thousands were killed in the ensuing political violence. Years of hard-won progress toward democracy were erased overnight.

But U.S. mistreatment of Haiti started much earlier. As soon as Haiti became independent in 1804, we refused to even recognize the new republic run by former slaves who fought to emancipate their island. In 1915, the United States invaded Haiti to ensure repayment of a debt to the First National Bank of New York (now Citibank) and stayed until 1934 — this was the longest Marine occupation ever in the Americas. Democrats and Republicans propped up ruthless dictators in the name of fighting communism. In the 1980s, the United States decimated Haiti's agricultural base by forcing subsidized U.S. rice on Haitian markets.

These policies failed Haitians terribly. They cost thousands of lives lost in political violence. Millions more suffered because Haiti's governments couldn't or wouldn't provide clean water and basic healthcare. The policies have also failed the United States by requiring us to mount expensive military interventions, respond to repeated waves of refugees, and deal with the drugs that transit easily through an underdeveloped Haiti on their way from South America.

Haitians' hopes for better treatment from the United States are grounded not just in Obama's promise, but in their own country's brief but successful experiment with democracy from 1994 to 2004, and in the strategic U.S. policies that contributed to that success.

Haiti's democratic interlude showed that democracy does work, even in difficult situations. The period did have contested elections and the government struggled to provide basic justice, education, and health care — the predictable challenges of a poor, emerging democracy. But that interlude also included Haiti's first transfer of power from one elected president to another in February 1996, and the second successful transition in February 2001. Democratic progress included extending AIDS retroviral therapy to rural areas that had never before had a simple clinic. It included two historic trials that brought powerful figures from Haiti's former army and current police force to justice, showing the power and potential of an independent judiciary.

These successes were due, in part, to U.S. government efforts. U.S. troops intervened to restore the constitutional government in 1994. USAID helped craft Haiti's successful application for financing from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. U.S. judges, prosecutors and police officers trained their Haitian counterparts, and also brought basic legal resources and materials into Haitian courts.

Historic Opportunity

Obama now has a historic opportunity to build a stronger, more prosperous Haiti. "Shovel-ready" policies could make an immediate impact. The Obama administration could grant Haiti's request for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a special immigration status that allows visitors from fragile countries to remain in the United States and work after their visas have expired. This would allow the 30,000 Haitians with final deportation orders to stay here and send money home to their relatives in Haiti. Obama could facilitate Aristide's return — he's still exiled in South Africa and remains the country's most popular political figure, hastening the return of normalcy to Haitian politics.

In the long run, the United States will need to persistently invest in Haiti's democracy. Money is notoriously short these days, but Haiti's small scale makes it a relative bargain: Three days' spending in Iraq or two weeks' interest on the U.S. bank bailout could fund Haiti's entire government for a year. Prudent, depoliticized investments in Haiti's democracy will yield dividends of prosperity and stability to Haiti, and will save U.S. taxpayer dollars in the long run by reducing the flow of refugees and drugs to our shores. Perhaps most importantly, by helping rebuild a better Haiti, the United States can recover our lost prestige and influence and demonstrate to all of Latin America that we are ready to be a good neighbor.

Paul Farmer, MD, is Presley professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School and a co-founder of Partners In Health; Brian Concannon Jr. is director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. They are Foreign Policy In Focus contributors.

www.jubileeusa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APRIL 15, 2009

CONTACT: Kristin Sundell, Jubilee USA, 202-783-0215 direct; 443-845-4461 cell

Brian Concannon Jr, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, 541-432-0597

Debt Relief to Support Haiti’s Fragile Democracy in Advance of Critical Senate Election

Washington DC – Jubilee USA Network today enthusiastically welcomed yesterday’s announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  that the US would pledge $20 million to cover Haiti’s 2009 debt payments to its multilateral creditors as part of an over $50 million aid package to the country. 

Haiti is currently sending $1.6 million to the World Bank every month while thousands of Haitians starve and funding shortages threaten the nation’s stability. 

“Today’s announcement is a victory for the people of Haiti.  The US pledge to cover Haiti’s debt service obligations will free $20 million for basic infrastructure, healthcare, and education and will help Haiti to recover from last year’s devastating storms.  We are especially grateful for the leadership shown by the Treasury and State Departments in achieving this commitment.” said Kristin Sundell, Deputy Director of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of faith-based, development, human rights and community organizations working for debt relief for impoverished countries.

“This is change that Haitians can believe in,” said Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.  “It provides much-needed tangible support while righting a historical wrong by removing the burden of Haiti’s unjust and unbearable multilateral debt.”

In February, a bipartisan group of 72 US Representatives called on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to immediately suspend all scheduled debt repayments from Haiti and grant complete debt cancellation to the impoverished nation.  The letter was circulated by Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA). 

Haiti is projected to complete the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative by July.  Completion of the program will result in the permanent cancellation of a substantial portion of Haiti’s debt to the United States, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank.  Haiti was improperly left out of the original HIPC for political reasons.  The country was accepted into the program in 2006, but its efforts to catch up have been hindered by economic policy conditions imposed by the IMF and a string of natural disasters, economic shocks and political unrest. 

Earlier this month Haitian President René Préval appealed to Secretary of State Clinton for immediate financial assistance, describing a $100 million budget gap that he said could throw Haiti into anarchy. 

The US pledge of $20 million in debt relief is a substantial step toward filling the budget gap, but the date by which Haiti is projected to complete the HIPC program and receive permanent debt cancellation has already been pushed back a number of times by the IMF.  Haiti’s debt must still be cancelled outright without further delays.

###

Co-Hosted by Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) & Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Who:

• Paul Farmer, Founding Director, Partners In Health
• Donna Barry, Advocacy and Policy Director, Partners In Health
• Margaret Satterthwaite, Faculty Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law
• Monika Kalra Varma, Director, Center for Human Rights, RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights
• Brian Concannon Jr., Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

When:          Wednesday, April 15th, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon

Where:         2105 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

RSVP: lclnyuihrc@gmail.com

The eruption of the international food crisis, a series of damaging hurricanes, and the impact of the current global financial crisis have aggravated conditions in Haiti, leaving the people of Haiti more vulnerable than ever. Donor states and the international financial institutions will convene in Washington on April 14^th to renew their partnership with the Government of Haiti and to pledge financial support.  Join representatives from leading human rights and non-profit organizations at a public panel to discuss international assistance to Haiti.

The groups—Partners In Health, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center), and Zanmi Lasante—will demonstrate that future international assistance must be empowering the Haitian government to provide basic government services to its citizens—a goal expressed at the 2004 donor conference that has yet to be realized.

The panelists will focus on the need for engagement and accountability mechanisms to better plan, implement and track internationally-funded projects in Haiti.  The panelists will present lessons learned from past donor conferences and field experience, and recommendations about how to make future assistance to Haiti more effective and sustainable.

For more information about these organizations, please see their websites: Center for Human Rights and Global Justice www.chrgj.org, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti www.ijdh.org, Partners In Health www.pih.org, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights www.rfkcenter.org, Zanmi Lasante http://www.pih.org/where/Haiti/Haiti.html.

Remarks of Mario JOSEPH, Managing Attorney of the BAI

I would like to thank the Center for Justice & Accountability for this award, on behalf of all the staff of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. I would like to accept the award in the name of the victims in Haiti, especially the victims of the Raboto massacre, whose courage and persistence make our work possible.

I would like to thank CJA even more for seven years of collaborating to bring our fight for justice to the United States.

We have a proverb in Haiti, “men anpil, chay pa lou.” It means “many hands make the burden light.” Can you say it with me? “Men anpil, chay pa lou”. Again…

In Haiti we carry many burdens. The burden of injustice, the burden of poverty, the burden of political instability. Often these burdens seem impossible to carry. But sometimes we find that if we have enough hands, we can carry them.

When we started the Raboto case, poor people had never used Haiti’s courts to achieve justice against rich or powerful people. But we put our hands together with the Raboto victims, with human rights activists and with judges, prosecutors and police who believed in a democratic justice system for Haiti.

We carried the Raboto case as far as it could go in Haiti. We had a trial, convicted those responsible, and won a damage verdict for our clients. It was a historic victory. But the top leaders of the dictatorship, and their money, were no longer in our country, they were in yours.

Haiti’s criminals and the U.S. government made the injustice of Raboteau international. With CJA, we made the fight for justice international. CJA was a true collaborator, involving BAI and our clients in all the decisions. CJA took every step necessary to ensure that the Raboto victims got their day in American courts. Last May, I carried a nice burden, $430,000, to our clients in Raboteau.

Many of Haiti’s burdens are at least in part failures of the rule of law. When hurricanes come, the rain floods our cities quickly, because our laws against cutting trees on mountains above the cities are not enforced. Schools collapse on students because no one is held responsible for poor construction. Political violence breaks out when our constitution is ignored.

Our collaborative, legal approach can carry other burdens in Haiti. We have put our hands together with Dr. Paul and Partners in Health to enforce the civil, political and health human rights of prisoners. We work with parents to enforce the human right to attend primary school, a right currently denied to half of our children. We work with political prisoners and their families to free the political prisoners remaining from our most recent dictatorship.

We are grateful for the helping hands of CJA, of Partners in Health, the Haiti Action Committee, Hastings Law School and from all our supporters in the U.S. But Haitians need even more help from people in the U.S., because many of our burdens start in your country. Carl Dorelien and Toto Constant found refuge here because your government collaborated in their brutality in Haiti. The U.S. did not even recognize Haiti, the second independent country in the Americas, for almost sixty years. The U.S. has helped many of Haiti’s 33 coup d’etats, including the most recent one in 2004, when our President was kidnapped and exiled to Africa on a U.S. plane.

So I ask you tonight to lend your hand to our fight for justice. We need you to ask your government to cancel Haiti’s unjust debt to the World Bank, and to treat Haitians coming to the U.S. fairly. We need you to make sure that your government reverses its failed policies to Haiti- not just the failed policies of the last 8 years, but the failed policies of the last 200 years.

I know that sometimes Haiti’s problems seem impossible to solve. But Haiti is the country where slaves won freedom by defeating Napoleon’s army. It is where Dr. Paul’s hospitals provide first-class treatment in remote mountain villages. It is where massacre victims from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Americas won justice against powerful, connected generals, in the courts of two countries. It is where “men anpil, chay pa lou”. Please, say it one more time with me “ Men anpil, chay pa lou”.