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Roger in Haiti

On August 5, 2007, I began a two-week visit to Haiti as part of a human rights fact finding delegation sponsored by the U.S.-based Fondasyon Mapou and Haiti Priorities Project. You can read an extensive account of this visit in the entries on this site. To learn more about our delegation's findings and see a photo display, you can attend meetings across Canada in the coming weeks. See the blog entry announcing these meetings, or visit the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network.

Our visit was marred by a tragic event--the kidnapping on August 12 of a well-known and respected Haitian political rights fighter, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. Our delegation had the honour of his participation in many of our events. We are now working hard with others to win his safe release.

You can send me information or feedback at rogerannis@hotmail.com I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you in the weeks ahead.

Roger Annis
August 27, 2007

Justice in Port au Prince

Posted August 12th, 2007 by Roger Annis

Port au Prince, August 12

This morning was spent in discussion with a union leader here. Later on, we went to the airport to see off a friend on her way to a family visit in the U.S. Who should we see there but none other than the hero Mario Joseph.

Joseph is Haiti’s leading lawyer in the defense of the unjustly imprisoned. He is a coordinator of the Bureau des avocats internationaux, a project of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

He reports there are approximately 2,500 prisoners being held in the prisons in the West Department of Haiti. This is the department that includes Port au Prince; one of ten geographic departments in the country. Of those prisoners, an estimated 80% are illegally detained. The Haitian constitution prohibits the jailing of anyone who has not appeared before a judge within 48 hours of his incarceration. Many of the aforementioned are held in violation of this law; others are held in violation of other constitutional provisions, or under bogus charges.

Two months ago, the Commissioner (Commissaire) of the West Department set up a special commission to speed up the treatment of prisoners. This has resulted in the release of 150 prisoners in the past two weeks. But the program is biased against political prisoners. Few of them are counted among the 150.

According to Joseph, no other department in Haiti has a comparable program of prisoner release, though the proportion of illegally detained would be similarly high.

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