GENEVA (CMC) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk Tuesday said that the scale of human rights abuses is unprecedented in modern Haitian history.
“The escalation of violence has had a devastating impact on the population. All human rights are impacted,” Turk said in a video message to the UN Human Rights Council.
Haiti has been thrown into severe political and socio-economic chaos ever since its President Jovenel Moise was assassinated on July 7, 2021, with criminal gangs now seeking to overthrow the Government of Prime Minister Dr Ariel Henry, who remains stranded in Puerto Rico and unable to return to his French-speaking Caribbean Community country.
Henry had travelled to Kenya to sign an agreement allowing for the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission, an international police force approved by the United Nations Security Council on October 2 last year.
“The ongoing insecurity has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Haiti,” the UN said over the weekend, adding that 360,000 people are currently displaced, including some 160,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, and more than 1,000 schools have been closed across the country.
Last month, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping, which is spearheading efforts for a Haitian-led solution to end the situation in the French-speaking country, said that an agreement had been reached that would allow for Henry to step down and for a transitional governance arrangement “which paves the way for a peaceful transition of power, continuity of governance and action plan for near-term security and the road to free and fair elections”.
Caricom said that it was also agreed that there would be the creation of a transitional team comprised of seven voting members and two observers.
Those with votes include the ‘Pitit Desalin’ party headed by Jean-Charles Moise, the EDE party of former Prime Minister Charles Joseph; the Fanmi Lavalas party; the December 21 coalition led by Henry; the Montana Accord group; and members of the private sector.
The non-voting members will be represented by one member from civil society and one from the interfaith community.
On Sunday, the transitional team issued a statement denying that it had issued a document that discusses the dismissal of senior public officials and deals with the procedures for its installation.
In his address to the UN Human Rights Council, Turk said there had been a “shocking rise in killings and kidnappings” as well as pervasive sexual violence in the country that is very likely to have reached levels not seen before.
“First and foremost, the immediate priority must be restoring a degree of public order to prevent further harm to the population from violence and to ensure access to life-saving humanitarian assistance,” Turk said.
The UN human rights office said that gang violence had left more than 1,500 people dead in the first three months of the year.
In the meantime, the UN said Tuesday that humanitarians continue to support Haitians affected by rampant gang violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, while an appeal for the French-speaking Caribbean country remains underfunded.
The UN said that the World Food Programme (WFP) continues to provide meals to people forced to flee their homes.
It said despite the widespread insecurity, the WFP has delivered food assistance to an estimated 480,000 people across the country since the beginning of March, thanks to partners on the ground, including Haitian non-governmental organisations, local businesses and Haitian farmers’ organisations.
The UN said humanitarian partners also have delivered more than 2.3 million litres of water to nearly 29 displacement sites, benefiting an estimated 60,000 displaced people.
It said traumatised Haitians, including children, have also received medicine and psychosocial support.
In addition, the health sector has been severely affected by the violence over the past month, with the UN saying that at least half of the health facilities in the capital are either closed or functioning below their normal capacity.