Haiti Report for May 14, 2005

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haitian and international media. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation.

IN THIS REPORT:
– Students Protest Increasing Poverty
– Election Process
– Supreme Court Ruling on Raboteau
– Human Rights Organizations are Troubled by Breathtaking Increase in Violence
– CARLI Reports on Human Rights Violations in April
– Former Prime Minsiter Yvon Neptune’s Condition Continues to Worsen
– Rainy Season Kills in Port-au-Prince
– New Political Alliance of Former Opposition
– NCHR Haiti Changes Its Name

Students Protest Increasing Poverty:
Some 200 to 300 students took to the streets this Wednesday in response to the appeal from GRAFNEH (Great National Front of Haitian Students) with the stated objective of denouncing the poor performance of the interim government, impunity, insecurity and the dreadful living conditions of the population. As the demonstration proceeded, it became less organized as the marchers quickly split into two rival groups who on several occasions nearly came to blows. An initial group dominated by students from the School of Social Sciences, which was the spearhead for the anti-Aristide GNB campaign, chanted slogans hostile to the interim government, calling for its departure, while at the same time their chants voiced their frustrations with the privileged classes whom they accused of wishing to conceal the grievous harm they have caused the country as they have attempted to distract the students’ attention.

Leaders of the Group of 184 were singled out for particularly harsh criticism through the protestor’s chants, including Charles Henri Baker, who was following the march up until it began to deteriorate. Representatives of the employer associations, though they had publicly voiced support for the demonstration through a news release, were absent from the march. Mr. Baker said he has information indicating that the Office of the Prime Minister had funds available as of the day before the march for the purpose of preventing the protest from being a success.

“We no longer want to be the turkeys used to make the stuffing (we no longer wish to be played for fools)” chanted the students, who at the same time called for explanations regarding the exemptions from taxes offered to business owners who were the object of vulgar insults. As they passed in front of the UN office in Bourdon, the marchers denounced the presence in Haiti of the UN’s MINUSTAH and called for “an end to the occupation”. They accused members of MINUSTAH of earning millions while the national police, they say, are fed crumbs.

A second group of demonstrators dominated by students from GRAFNEH (Great National Front of Haitian Students) who for the most part were attending INAGHEI (another bastion of the anti-Aristide GNB movement) tended to blame the interim authorities as being single-handedly responsible for the deterioration in the living conditions of the population, the high cost of living, insecurity and impunity. Accused of having been paid off by people from the private sector, they in turn accused their colleagues from the School of Social Sciences of having received money from one of the organizations supporting the campaign to lower gasoline and diesel fuel prices.

The members of GRAFNEH had hoped on this occasion that the demonstration would be limited to simply denouncing the poor record of governance by the interim authorities, without ruling out, however, that they might move ahead with calls for the government’s departure in the event the government fails to accede to their demands. But their strategy was defeated because of the diversity of demands within their own midst and by the rigour of the members of the other group who would not limit themselves in expressing their frustrations, feeling that they have been abandoned ever since they helped achieve the sudden departure of President Aristide on February 29, 2004. Several students said they were sad to see the splits permeating the student community, and that the divisions are a result, they said, of the fact that their struggle was exploited by a sector that no longer had anything to do with the students.

They deplored that only 200 to 300 people responded to GRAFNEH’s call while more than 20 organizations from the political sectors and the business community had expressed support for their call to demonstrate. “With or without them, we will continue our struggle and it will be for the benefit of the entire population”, said a student. (AHP, 5/11)

A student from the Social Sciences Faculty, Jean Junior Wilson, declared Thursday that there was no division between students of the State University of Haiti. According to Jean Junior Wilson, the antagonisms seen during the May 11th demonstration are the result of some students’ misunderstanding as they forgot, he said, that their role was to push the authorities to take measures to help underprivileged masses. He declared that the students’ march against exploitation and misery will continue adding that they will never work together with people exploiting them. INAGHEI and Social Sciences students almost came to blows Wednesday during a demonstration called by the GRAFNEH to denounce the interim authorities’ lack of action in regards to the population’s misery. Another group of students had spoken to criticize the private business sector that, according to them, doesn’t help to solve the country’s problems. (AHP, 5/12)

Several organizations from the civil society including SOFA, Kay Fanm, PAPDA, POHDH and UNNOH announced for this Friday a new sit-in before the office of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in order to support the action of drivers’ unions to try to make authorities lower the prices of oil products on the local market. According to leader of the National Union of Haitian Teachers-in-Training (UNNOH), Josué Mérilien, these movements of protest will continue since interim authorities still refuse to meet their demands. Mr. Mérilien asked students, workers, peasants, drivers and small vendors, to participate to this sit-in in order to force the authorities to hear their voices. “We are more determined than ever to fight for the respect of all citizens’ rights and for the improvement of the population’s living conditions”, Josué Mérilien declared. Students from the Social Sciences Faculty said they would be there. (AHP, 5/12)

President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CCIH) Réginald Boulos rose up Thursday against the slogans chanted the day before during a students demonstration against the business private sector accused of responsibility in the deterioration of the population’s living conditions. In an interview on a private radio station of Port-au-Prince, M. Boulos accused the students of taking advantage of a demonstration supposed to denounce insecurity, impunity and the high cost of living, to chant slogans hostile to a social class. Students had accused people from the privileged class of wanting to mock them when they had come to participate to a march against the high cost of fuels and bare necessities.

According to the CCIH President, the students’ behaviour clearly shows the class war that has always existed in the country and that needs to be banned. “We will not accept that some sectors come to revive this war at a time when we are talking about national unity and reconciliation”, Réginald Boulos declared, adding that this was a practice used by Aristide and that is what caused Lavalas to have 12 years of power. According to Boulos, the people behind what happened Wednesday are a minority who don’t want to see the development of the good understanding already in progress, according to him, between the wealthy class and the Haitian people. He took the occasion to declare that the private business sector was never consulted by interim authorities about the raise of fuel products.

About the explanation asked by students on the fiscal advantages granted to the business sector on a period of three years for the damage that was caused to them after President Airstide’s hasty departure, Boulos considered it was normal and declared that he had demanded that these advantages are given to small retailers from the informal sector. Answering Wednesday the accusations made against the wealthy class during the students demonstration, leader of the Group of 184 Charles Henri Baker had said that he had information since the day before that the Primature had released funds to thwart the demonstration. (AHP, 5/12)

Election Process:
The Haitian Electoral Rights Observation Group (LOHDE) said Wednesday it is concerned about prospects for the electoral process to take shape in the normal manner given the confusion, babbling, incoherence and generalized insecurity that characterized the manner in which the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and the international community conducted themselves on Monday April 25 in Gonaïves at the symbolic launch of voter registration. In a news release provided to AHP, the OHDE stressed that the way in which the CEP intends to go about registering four million potential voters risks leading to an electoral catastrophe. The organization explained its view in the following manner. All effective systems for voter registration are based on fulfilling two basic principles, it said.

The first requires that there be easy access for all eligible voters and the second basic principle flows from the first one, that is that the system must prevent the exclusion of eligible voters, the OHDE affirmed. It will be difficult, asserted the organization, for the CEP to obtain the desired results of free, honest and democratic elections scheduled for the end of this year. The election monitoring organization believes it is appropriate to remind the electoral authorities and the international community that proper voter registration is an absolute pre-requisite for free and fair elections and is of fundamental importance in any democratic electoral process. The organization also wishes to remind the electoral authorities that Haitians must be informed about the electoral operations as called for under Article 6 of the electoral decree pertaining to the 2005 elections. (AHP, 5/11)

An agreement protocol was signed this Thursday between the European Union, the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), the Haitian government and the CEP for the release of 13 millions dollars for the organization of elections in Haiti. This amount is part of the 60 millions dollars needed by the CEP to organize the elections announced for the year 2005. With these 13 millions dollars, 44 millions are now available. The government is now looking for more sources of financing. The funds needed for the running of the CEP are managed by the UNDP. (AHP, 5/12)

Though elections, scheduled for October, should not be seen as the universal remedy to Haiti’s crisis, they are essential to forming a legitimate government as the Caribbean country’s political transition period comes to an end, the Brazilian representative told the Security Council today. Introducing the report of the four-day Council mission he led to Haiti last month, Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg said there was no alternative to the elections and all political parties that rejected violence should be entitled to take part. He called on the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the country’s Transitional Government to launch a nationwide civic education programme to ensure the broadest possible participation in the polls.

Arrangements needed to be urgently made for the deployment of international election observers and for special tightened security before and after the elections, he said. The report says, “Free, fair and inclusive elections must be held in 2005, in accordance with the established timetable, and the results respected by all actors. The Security Council mission recalls that, in accordance with the Haitian Constitution, democratically elected authorities must take office on 7 February 2006.” (UN Daily News, 5/13)

Supreme Court Ruling on Raboteau:
In a nation where state-sponsored massacres are as common as the impunity granted to their perpetrators, the Raboteau trial shone as a beacon of long-denied justice. In November 2000, a Haitian jury convicted 16 former soldiers and paramilitaries for their participation in a 1994 bloody rampage through a seaside slum called Raboteau that left at least eight people dead. A week later, a court convicted 37 more defendants in absentia. The trial was praised by the United Nations as “a huge step forward” and hailed by international jurists as a milestone human rights case. Last week, the convictions of at least 15 of the Raboteau defendants were overturned in one fell swoop by Haiti’s Supreme Court in a murky ruling that represents the latest in a series of human rights scandals since interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue assumed office 14 months ago. “Raboteau was perhaps the only time (in Haiti) that justice was achieved after a massacre, and in a scrupulously fair trial,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. “To overturn that verdict is to say that the only justice possible in Haiti is the justice of those with guns. It’s a sad day.”

Legal experts say the Supreme Court’s decision, which stated that the case should not have been tried by a jury, was based on a technicality. According to Mario Joseph, a human rights lawyer who represented the victims of the Raboteau killings, the Supreme Court already approved the jury trial a year before it began. “This verdict is purely political,” said Joseph. “With this decision in the Raboteau case, the justice system cannot go any lower… They are releasing criminals and arresting innocents.”

The Latortue administration has denied exerting any influence over the court in its decision, responding to criticism that the government has made a habit of trampling judicial independence. Last December, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse removed two prominent judges’ caseloads after they had ordered the release of prisoners who were political opponents of the government.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes nine months after paramilitary leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain was acquitted for the 1993 murder of pro-democracy activist Antoine Izmery in an overnight trial that Amnesty International condemned as “a very sad record in the history of Haiti.”

Chamblain has remained in prison awaiting a retrial of the Raboteau massacre, a right he is granted under Haitian law because he had been convicted in absentia. It was not clear whether the recent Supreme Court ruling would lead to the release of Chamblain, who was second-in-command of a murderous paramilitary group called FRAPH that was allied with the military regime. The annulment of the convictions itself appeared to apply only to those convicted at the jury trial, and not to Chamblain and other self-exiled defendants convicted in absentia, such as paramilitary leader Emmanuel Constant, and the three top leaders of the military dictatorship, Raoul Cedras, Philippe Biamby and Michel François.

Latortue owes his mandate in part to Chamblain, who helped lead a revolt of former soldiers and gangs that ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. During the revolt, all those imprisoned for the Raboteau massacre were broken out of jail. After taking power, Latortue hailed them as “freedom fighters” in a speech in Gonaives, the city where Raboteau is located and the site of the trial.

None of the Raboteau convicts has been recaptured by the U.S.-backed government of Latortue, which has begun paying compensation packages to thousands of former soldiers despite warnings from experts that doing so would undermine a U.N.-led disarmament program. Under Latortue, the Haitian government has been accused of waging a campaign of repression against Aristide supporters that has included arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, summary executions and bloody crackdowns of peaceful demonstrations. Earlier this month, U.N. official Thierry Fagart criticized the government for keeping Aristide ally and former prime minister Yvon Neptune imprisoned for more than 10 months without seeing a judge. Neptune has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month and is reported to be in grave condition. (Toronto Star, 5/14)

The organization that was until very recently named NCHR-Haiti, and which is now called the National Network of Human Rights Defenders (RNDDH), urged Wednesday that a new trial be held for the individuals convicted in connection with the Raboteau massacre and whose release from prison has been ordered by the High Court. Soldiers from the former Armed Forces of Haiti along with members of paramilitary groups such as FRAPH and San Manman were convicted in November 2000 for their participation in the massacre on April 22, 1994 of dozens of supporters of President Aristide who had been forced into exile through a coup d’Etat.

The two most senior leaders of FRAPH, Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and Louis Jodel Chamblin, were convicted in absentia at the end of that trial which was observed by several human rights organizations as well as the UN/OAS international civilian Mission. RNDDH director Pierre Espérance said he respects the recent ruling issued by the Court of Cassation but commented that this decision does not exonerate those who were convicted nor does it nullify the indictment that led to the trial. In its ruling relating to the individuals convicted of the Raboteau massacre, the Court of Cassation makes no mention of the 37 people who were convicted in absentia, including Louis Jodel Chamblin, declared Pierre Espérance. The RNDDH director said he is prepared to oppose any measure to release them. (AHP, 5/11)

Attorneys representing Louis Jodel Chamblain, the second in command of the FRAPH paramilitary organization, met Tuesday with the the government prosecutor for Gonaïves, Louiselmé Joseph, following the decision taken by the Court of Cassation to cancel the trial of their client on charges relating to the Raboteau massacre of April 22, 1992. The two highest ranking FRAPH officials, Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and Louis Jodel Chamblain, were convicted in absentia in that trial which was observed by several international human rights organizations and the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission.

Attorney Louiselmé Joseph said that for the moment he is waiting for the authorities to act before he takes a position on the ruling of the High Court. For his part, Mr. Stanley Gaston, one of the lawyers for Mr. Chamblain, said that most of his clients who were convicted in the Raboteau massacre trial are already free and others will be free in the not too distant future. One of the convicted men, Jean-Pierre known as Jean Tatoune, has been free for the past two years ever since attackers broke through the walls of the civil prison of Gonaïves in 2003. (AHP, 5/10)

Human Rights Organizations are Troubled by Breathtaking Increase in Violence:
Several human rights organizations said they are deeply troubled by the breathtaking increase in reported cases of kidnappings, killings, indiscriminate shooting and what they referred to as other forms of human rights violations in the country. In a news release sent to AHP dated May 9, 2005, organizations including the National Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, POHDH (the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations), CHR (the Haitian Conference of Religious), GARR (Group in Support of Repatriated Refugees) and the Toussaint Louverture Center “call upon and strongly urge the State authorities and the government to take all necessary steps to correct the situation and prevent honest and peaceful citizens from continuing to be victims of all types of assaults by armed bandits who are acting with complete impunity”.

The UN’s MINUSTAH, whose mission includes maintaining a secure and stable environment in the country does not seem to be involved in this work any more than the government, said the organizations that signed on to the news release. The human rights groups also pointed out that scarcely a day goes by without at least ten people being kidnapped or shot dead in the Haitian capital. The principle causes of this deterioration of the socio-political environment are impunity, the lax attitude of the government and the judicial authorities and the dysfunctional state of the Haitian National Police, according to these organizations. “The current confluence of events appears to be manipulated by national and international political sectors who would like to project an image of Haiti as a country which has become a chaotic, ungovernable entity, in order that these sectors may achieve their shameful and unconfessed objectives”.

Several other local and international human rights organizations have indicated that Haiti’s violence is manifesting itself through executions in the populist districts of the capital and through bloodshed during peaceful demonstrations without there being investigations to find and punish the authors of these crimes. (AHP, 5/11)

CARLI Reports on Human Rights Violations in April:
The Committee of Lawyers for the Respect of Individual Liberties (CARLI) published its report Wednesday on human rights violations observed in the country during the month of April 2005. As during the preceding month, CARLI reports that April was marked by very serious violations of human rights, notably arbitrary arrests, prolonged preventive detention, violations of civil and political rights but, above all, said CARLI, cases of summary executions involving officers from the national police. The human rights organisation observed in its report that the presumed authors of these violations are generally officers assigned to the West Department Directorate of the police (DDO), or working out of police stations and sub-stations in the capital and in some provincial cities, or from the Anti-Gang and Investigation Service of the Delmas police headquarters, or the Departmental Section of the Judicial police, or unidentified armed individuals. (AHP, 5/11)

Former Prime Minsiter Yvon Neptune’s Condition Continues to Worsen:
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed grave concern regarding the health of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. Yvon Neptune has been on a hunger strike for 23 days at an annex of the National Penitentiary located in Pacot. The objective of the hunger strike is to obtain his release from prison. In a news release, the IACHR said it is closely following the situation of Mr. Neptune because, it observed, the former Lavalas leader is being detained without charge and without having appeared before a judge to determine the legality of his arrest since his incarceration in June 2004.

The international human rights body said it understands that Mr. Neptune has undertaken this hunger strike because of the lack of due process in his case. The Commission stated that it has sent written communications to the interim government on three separate occasions during March and April 2005 to ask for information regarding the legal status of Mr. Neptune’s case, including the security measures taken on his behalf and his state of health. The IACHR said it deplores that to date no response has been received from the government.

An individual petition was submitted to the IACHR on behalf of Mr. Neptune on April 19, 2005, which transmitted it to the provisional government for response. None has been received thus far. The IACHR observed that Yvon Neptune’s situation is part of a broader and longstanding problem in Haiti of prolonged detention of individuals without charge or trial. The Commission pointed out that during its latest visit in April 2005, it discovered that of 1045 detainees at the National Penitentiary, only 9 had been convicted of any crime.

The OAS human rights body called on the interim government to respect its obligations to end impunity for all human rights abuses through demonstrably fair and effective procedures that conform to international standards, and to ensure to all persons under its jurisdiction the right to physical integrity, liberty and the right to a fair trial consistent with Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the American Convention. The IACHR asked the Haitian State to take the urgent measures necessary to guarantee the right to life, physical integrity and access to effective judicial protection in the case of Mr. Neptune. (AHP, 5/10)

The daughter of Haiti’s former prime minister on Wednesday urged the international community to act to save her father, who has been on a hunger strike for the last three weeks to protest his 10-month detention without charge. “Without the help and pressure of the international community, my father will die,” Yvon Neptune’s daughter, Maryvonne, said at a news conference. “I’m calling for action — for people to actively and openly put pressure on the people who are detaining him.” Yvon Neptune is accused of orchestrating political killings during the February 2004 rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Neptune has not been brought before a judge to hear the accusations against him, though the Haitian constitution says that must be done within 48 hours. He denies the allegations.

Neptune is being held in a special prison near police headquarters in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Maryvonne Neptune, who recently graduated from New York University, said her 58-year-old father can no longer walk without help, “but he will not eat until he’s released. His health is rapidly diminishing,” she said. “He is really struggling.” (AP, 5/9)

On his 23rd day of a jailhouse hunger strike, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune is reported to have grown so weak that he cannot walk and slips in and out of consciousness, raising fears that he will die before he escapes the legal limbo of the past 11 months. The hunger strike has become a high-stakes test of wills between Neptune, who is risking his life, and the Haitian government, which could lose critical support from the United States and the United Nations if he dies. ‘’The de facto regime wants to kill him,’’ said Mario Dupuy, a spokesman for Aristide’s Lavalas Family party. ``There is no justice in Haiti right now. They must free Mr. Neptune and all political prisoners.’’ Human rights observers have largely agreed with Neptune’s advocates. Even officials from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti — there to support the interim government — have called on authorities to give Neptune a fair trial or release him.

An Organization of American States human rights delegation last month found that of 1,054 inmates in the National Penitentiary, only nine were convicted of a crime. The situation is not new. ‘’This is part of the series of chronic problems the Haitian justice system has,’’ said Marie Yolene Gilles, National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, a Haitian nonprofit group. “No government has ever corrected it. Under Aristide, there were people who spent up to three years in prison before seeing a judge.’’ There are two stages of being charged with a crime in Haiti, one at the time of arrest, another by a judge when the case is ready for trial. Neptune has been charged only after his arrest. He has requested different judges and asked for changes in venues. Gilles said Neptune has been called before a judge three times, but has refused to go. ‘’He is the one who caused the delay,’’ Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told the Herald earlier this year. (Miami Herald, 5/11)

Rainy Season Kills in Port-au-Prince:
A Haitian official on Monday called for before the looming hurricane season as weekend floods killed 11 in the capital. Interior Minister Georges Moise said a large number of people could die if not relocated from areas vulnerable to mudslides or flash floods. He did not specify how many people would need to be moved or how much such an operation would cost. In September, torrential rains killed 3,000 people in the northern port city of Gonaives after Tropical Storm Jeanne, later to become a hurricane, swept to the north of the impoverished Caribbean country. Floods in the South of Haiti killed another 2,000 people last May.

“It is a very urgent matter, a disaster may occur any time. We need to move those people to another place,” Moise told Reuters in an interview. “We want to act, but we don’t have the financial means. We need the international community to help us,” he said. At least 11 people, including a pregnant woman and a 2-year-old girl, were killed early on Saturday when floods triggered by two hours of heavy rains covered their flimsy homes in the Coquillo Nazon district of Port-au-Prince. Officials at the civil protection office said the flooding was aggravated by the obstruction of drains by dirt and debris. The flood-struck neighborhood is below street level. “They are like living in a hole, so when it rains the water just fills the place and cover the houses,” a civil protection investigator said.

Moise said the interior ministry wanted to build shelters for potential flood victims. The Atlantic-Caribbean basin hurricane season begins on June 1 and runs until the end of November. “If the international community could help us find the funding to buil shelters, even temporary shelters with tents, that would be very helpful,” Moise said. Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is vulnerable to weather-related disasters because 98 percent of its forests have been chopped down to produce charcoal for cooking. (Reuters, 5/9)

New Political Alliance of Former Opposition:
Several political parties and organizations from the former opposition to Aristide have opted to work together to coordinate a major citizen’s movement, they said, to mobilize the Haitian people against insecurity and for improvements in the quality of life and for the holding of elections. In a statement published May 9, these organizations, including the Fusion Party of Social Democrats, the Great Front of the Center Right, the Group of 184, The IC (Citizen Initiative), the Democratic Unity Convention (KID), OPL, MRN and MOCHRENAH, said that this decision was adopted in order to address the situation of generalized insecurity facilitated, they said, by the hard-liners from a government that has been overthrown along with other sectors who are in pursuit of shameful objectives.

“This bloc is indispensable in light of the population’s distress, the deterioration of the country’s institutions and the collapse of the authority of the State”, said the signatories of the news release, who also said they recognize the urgent need to put in place legitimate institutions in order to begin immediately the process of national reconstruction. These parties also affirmed their desire to “accompany the Haitian people in their long march to liberty and cultural affirmation and in their struggle to defend their rights and achievements that are instrumental in the re-conquest of national sovereignty”, they said. (AHP, 5/10)

NCHR Haiti Changes Name:
The National Coalition for Haitians’ Rights (NCHR/Haiti) informed Monday that it will now work under the name “National Network of Defense of Human Rights” (RNDDH). Leaders of NCHR/Haiti, created in 1992, declared that they were the ones who chose to divorce with the mother organization based in New-York, during a meeting on March 4, 2005. However, NCHR leader Jocelyn Mccalla had asked his daughter to change the name and choose a name that would correspond more to the type of work done by the organization, as it was said in a communiqué published on the Internet.

The NCHR, lead by Jocelyn Mccalla, had considered terrible the NCHR/Haiti’s attitude for showing itself hostile to the disposition taken by the interim authorities and the MINUSTHA to allow former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, in hunger strike, to receive health care at an Argentinean Hospital, in order to avoid his death.

 It in May 9th communiqué sent to AHP under the title “Name Change”, the NCHR/Haiti, now the RNDDH, promised to remain consistent in its commitment. The organization says it has set up since 1995, a training program in human rights for activists and organizations leaders on a national scale and in the Dominican bateyes.

The National Network of Defense of Human Rights, called NCHR-Haiti before, informs that it kept all the personnel, the programs, the property and the commitments from NCHR-Haiti. The RNDDH says it reaffirms its determination to accompany the Haitian people in its search for justice, democracy and the establishment in Haiti of a State that respect fundamental Human Rights. (AHP, 5/10)

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