Half-Hour for Haiti: Invest in Hope and Justice for Haiti

December 10, 2008

 
2008 has been a year of great tragedy, but also great hope, for all of us at the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). The bad news from Haiti kept coming, from April’s food crisis to August’s hurricanes and November’s school collapse. As usual, it was the poor who suffered the most, including our clients. But the good news kept coming too, as IJDH and BAI won several historic victories for Haiti’s poor, with your help. The highlights for us were delivering court-awarded damages to 94 victims of the Raboteau massacre, and receiving a binding order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights requiring improvements in Haiti’s miserable prisons.

Update: The good news first: the Haitian government has appointed an Investigating Judge (Juge d’Instruction) to investigate the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. The judge started  holding hearings last week. Attorney Mario Joseph of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), representing Lovinsky’s family, participated in the hearings. He reports that the judge is off to a good start. Two people have been arrested in the case, both in connection with possessing Lovinsky’s cell phone.

Some progress on Debt Relief for Haiti: the Inter-American Development Bank will be paying 2/3 of the debt service owed to the Bank by Haiti in 2009, a total of about $14 million. This can make a great difference for Haiti, and is good reason to push the World Bank to make a similar arrangement.

The bad news: the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit has resumed deportations to Haiti. Representatives Alcee Hastings and Robert Wexler called resuming deportations to a country that has had as bad a year as Haiti “short-sighted and inhumane” in a letter to immigration officials. We hope to have an action alert on this issue soon.

This week’s action is to consider joining in the fight for justice in Haiti by financially supporting IJDH and BAI:

INVEST IN HOPE AND JUSTICE FOR HAITI

 

The successes of 2008 demonstrate the potential for sustainable, systemic progress for Haiti’s poor. The tragedies of 2008 demonstrate the cost of weak legal structures. Haiti’s extreme vulnerability to rising food prices was a product of unjust debt payments and unfair trade policies imposed on previous governments in violation of the country’s sovereignty. Haiti’s neighbors, where laws on cutting trees are better enforced, suffered less flooding from the same hurricanes. Enforcing existing building codes would have prevented the school collapses.

Our work strengthening the rule of law and opening the doors of justice for Haiti’s poor is a proven solution to many of Haiti’s chronic problems. We will continue to implement this solution in 2009, but we will need your help. We will need your telephone calls and letters throughout the year, but right now we also need your financial support. Whether you contribute $5 or $500, your support allows us to make a concrete difference in the lives of Haiti’s poor.

With your help, we are proving that justice works for Haiti. Just consider what we have accomplished together this year:

• After a 14 year-long battle, victims of the 1994 Raboteau massacre received checks for over $400,000 in court-awarded damages.  This victory required prevailing in eight different appellate and trial courts in Haiti and the U.S.;

• Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel Constant was convicted of bank fraud in New York. Despite efforts of the U.S. government to arrange a light sentence, he was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison, in part because of his crimes in Haiti;

§ In June, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decided Yvon Neptune v. Haiti, the first-ever Haiti case before the Court. The decision ordered an end to Mr. Neptune’s persecution and also ordered the Haitian government to adopt a plan to improve prison conditions to meet international standards;

§ The Jubilee Act for Debt Cancellation passed the U.S. House of Representatives, and if not for one Senator’s obstruction, would have passed the Senate. The IDB, under pressure, agreed to pay much of Haiti’s debt service in 2009;

• In June, the final charges against Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste were dismissed by the appeals court. Freed of his legal restrictions, Fr. Gerry has expanded his food program in Haiti, which today serves over 7,500 meals per week.
  

Each of these victories resulted from strategic collaborations with others. As Haitians say, men anpil, chay pa lou (“many hands makes the load light”). IJDH and BAI played an important role in each, but so did activists in Haiti and abroad, as well as lawyers, economists, and other allies.

Your activism and contributions have also helped us secure these victories. We work hard to honor the faith your contribution represents by using your investment efficiently and effectively. The combined annual budget for BAI and IJDH is only $270,000. This is extraordinarily low for the amount of work we do. Over 75% of this budget comes directly from private individual donors and activists like you. We do not receive money from any government or political party.

With your help, in 2009 we will continue fighting on the front lines for justice on behalf of Haiti’s poor. We will also launch a program directly addressing Haiti’s inhuman prison conditions and a lawsuit enforcing Haitian children’s human right to primary education.

Please donate now by clicking here or on the “Donate Now” box on www.HaitiJustice.org, or by sending a check to: IJDH, PO Box 745, Joseph, OR, 97846.

IJDH is a recognized charitable organization under IRS Code Sec. 501(c)3. All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

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.