CETRI
In October 2020, the international campaign Stop silence Haiti was launched ! Where do we stand, eight months later ? All the abuses, violence and injustices denounced in this appeal have worsened. Poverty has increased, hunger affects more than 4 million people, kidnappings – coupled with rapes – have multiplied, and armed gangs have further extended their power. Widespread insecurity affects all segments of the population, further compromising access to basic social services, including education and health.
There has been no judicial progress in the massacres – twelve massacres have been recorded since 2018 – and corruption cases, foremost among them, Petrocaribe, while new investigations, national and international, confirm the involvement and complicity of the power. The assassination of the President of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association, Mr. Monferrier Dorval, like so many others, remains unpunished.
Violence and impunity feed each other, plunging Haiti into a vicious circle.
The deterioration of human rights and living conditions of the population is catalyzed by the political crisis. On February 7, 2021, the presidential term of Jovenel Moïse ended. But he refused to leave power. He intends to remain at the head of the state until a referendum –prohibited by the Constitution – is held at the end of June and elections are held in September.
By doing so, and by inventing an attempted coup d’état to justify the retirement of three judges of the Court of Cassation – which constitutes (another) unconstitutional act – Jovenel Moïse has clearly opted for a strategy of « rotting » and consecrating the authoritarianism of his regime. Yet he continues to enjoy the support of the Core Group [1], in general, and the United States, in particular.
In recent months and on multiple occasions, peasants and women’s movements, unions, young Petrochallengers, churches, human rights NGOs, social organizations, the justice and education sectors, and intellectuals have demonstrated en masse to demand respect for the Constitution, the departure of Jovenel Moïse, and a breakthrough transition.
They were able to count on an international mobilization, which was expressed by various currents. Thus, since February 7, 2021, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Coordination Europe-Haiti (Co-EH), and the International Assembly of Peoples, to take only these examples, have taken a stand in support of the claims of the Haitian movements.
At the diplomatic level too, the lines are beginning to move. Sixty-eight Democratic members of the U.S. Congress have called for a change in Washington’s policy towards Haiti. The European Parliament has just passed an emergency resolution [2]. While refusing to support the referendum and pointing out that « the violence in Haiti is closely linked to armed gangs, some of which are supported and financed by the local oligarchy, » it nonetheless continues to maintain the myth that free and credible elections can be organized by the Haitian authorities.
Jovenel Moïse continues his headlong rush, and the international community, in the name of the « inclusive national dialogue » and a way out of the crisis through elections, is falling into the trap – or even instrumentalizes this trap – of supporting the de facto president. A broad national consensus has been forged for months against Jovenel Moïse. To call, again and again, for him to fight against violence, impunity and the polarization of the country, when he is one of the main perpetrators, is either blind or hypocritical.
The conditions are not met for free and democratic elections, nor for a referendum on the Constitution. Jovenel Moïse has no legitimacy to organize them. In the current situation, where entire neighborhoods are controlled by armed gangs, where electoral institutions and mechanisms are manipulated by the government, these elections will have no credibility. In any case, they have no other purpose further than to consecrate the reproduction of the clique in power and to consecrate impunity, locking the country into a new cycle of violence and instability.
Jovenel Moïse is part of the problem, not the solution. Every day that passes with him in power is a missed opportunity for democratic change, making the transition more complicated and difficult. The international community is not lacking in information about what is happening in Haiti ; it lacks courage. The courage of acknowledging the failure of diplomacy in recent years, if not decades, to confront the United States, to uphold human rights and to listen to the claims of Haitians.
Therefore, we demand from governments, international institutions and especially the Core Group :
- 1. To respect the sovereignty of the Haitian people, and to denounce all interference.
- 2. To listen to the actors of Haitian civil society, who have publicly and repeatedly spoken out against the holding of a referendum and elections, which, under the current conditions, will be neither free nor democratic, and can only be a tragic farce, risking the restoration of the dictatorship.
- 3. To denounce the illegitimacy of the referendum and the electoral process, as well as the lack of conditions for free and democratic elections to be carried out with Jovenel Moïse in power.
- 4. To support a transition process demanded and implemented by Haitians, based on the 1987 Constitution.
- 5. Support the work of Haitian organizations to ensure that those responsible for human rights violations – most notably the massacres and the squandering of Petrocaribe funds – are brought to justice in a fair and just manner.
- 6. To review more broadly, with humility and honesty, their policies over the past years, and even decades, that have contributed to the current impasse.
Signatory organisations :
1. Confédération Syndicale Internationale (CSI), International
2. Coordination Européenne Via Campesina (ECVC), Europe
3. Coordination Europe-Haïti (COEH), Europe
4. Comité pour l’abolition des dettes illégitimes (CADTM), International
5. Acción Afro-Dominicana, République dominicaine
6. Accion Ecologica, Équateur
7. ActionAid, France
8. Agenda Solidaridad, République dominicaine
9. AITEC, France
10. Anacaona Droits Humains Haïti, France
11. Asbl Theux/Saint-Michel, Belgique
12. Asbl Farnières-Haïti, Belgique
13. Asociación Acción Verapaz, Espagne
14. Association Française d’Amitié et de Solidarité avec les Peuples d’Afrique (AFASPA), France
15. Association PeopleKonsian, France
16. Association Pour Haïti, France
17. Ayiti Cheri vzw, Belgique
18. Coalition des Alternatives Africaines Dette et Développement (CAD), Mali
19. ATTAC - CADTM, Argentine
20. ATTAC - CADTM, Maroc
21. ATTAC Liège, Belgique
22. ATTAC Wallonie Bruxelles (AWB), Belgique
23. AWMR-Italia Associazione Donne della Regione Mediterranea, Italie
24. CADTM – AYNA, Amérique latine
25. CADTM – Belgique, Belgique
26. Carrefour de solidarité internationale, Canada
27. Cátedra Libre de Pensamiento Latinoamericano « Ernesto Che Guevara », Mexique
28. Coopération Éducation Culture (CEC), Belgique
29. Centre francophone de recherche partenariale sur l’assainissement, les déchets et l’environnement (CEFREPADE), France
30. Centre de recherche et d’information pour le développement (CRID), France
31. Centre de recherches et d’initiatives de solidarité internationale (CEDETIM), France
32. Centro de militares para la democracia argentina (CEMIDA), Argentine
33. Centre d’Education et d’Interventions Sociales (CEIS), Haïti
34. Centre International de Solidarité Ouvrière (CISO), Canada
35. Centre national de coopération au développement (CNCD-11.11.11), Belgique
36. Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos « Segundo Montes Mozo S.J. » (CSMM), Équateur
37. Centro de Pensamiento Crítico Pedro Paz, Argentine
38. Centro de Promocion y Formacion en Derechos Humanos, Venezuela
39. Centre d’Éducation Populaire André Genot (CEPAG), Belgique
40. Centre tricontinental-CETRI, Belgique
41. Centro de Pensamiento Crítico Pedro Paz, Argentine
42. Circulos bolivarianos socialistas Costa Rica, Costa Rica
43. Clowns Sans Frontières, Canada
44. Coalition des Acteurs de la Société Civile (CASC), Haïti
45. Coalition Haïtienne au Canada contre la Dictature en Haïti (COHCCDH), Canada
46. Codepink, États-Unis
47. Collectif 35 des amis d’Haïti, France
48. Collectif Haïti de France (CHF), France
49. Collectif Régional pour la Coopération Nord-Sud (CIBELE), Ile de France, France
50. Collectif Régional pour la Coopération Nord-Sud (CORENS), France
51. Comité argentino de solidaridad por el fin de la ocupación de Haití, Argentine
52. Colectivo Tejido de transicionantes por el Valle del Cauca, Arturo Escobar, Colombie
53. Colonialism Reparation, Italie
54. Comitê anti-imperialista general Abreu e Lima, Brésil
55. Comité de Derechos Humanos de Base de Chiapas Digna Ochoa, Mexique
56. Comité Democrático Haitiano en Argentina, Argentine
57. Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos, République Dominicaine
58. Commission altermondialisation et solidarité internationale de Québec solidaire, Canada
59. Commission Haïtienne pour le Respect des Droits Humains (CHREDHU), Haïti
60. Commission Épiscopale Nationale Justice et Paix (CE-JILAP), Haïti
61. Comité Catholique Contre la Faim et pour le Développement – Terre Solidaire (CCFD-Terre Solidaire), France
62. Comuna Caribe, Puerto Rico
63. Comunidad Cristiana Vanguardia Obrera, Espagne
64. Comuniste de Catalunya, Espagne
65. Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG), de Galiza, Espagne
66. Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens (ACV-CSC), Belgique
67. Confédération des Travailleurs et Travailleuses des Secteurs Public et Privé (CTSP), Haïti
68. Confédération des Travailleurs Haïtiens (CTH), Haïti
69. Congreso de los Pueblos - Capítulo Chile, Chili
70. Conseil National des Comités Populaires (CNCP), Martinique
71. Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, Venezuela
72. Diaspora Africaine de Belgique (DAB), Belgique
73. Diaspora Togolaise de Belgique (DTB), Belgique
74. Diálogo 2000-Jubileo Sur, Argentine
75. ECOSUR, Ecología, Cultura y Educación desde los Pueblos del Sur, Argentine
76. Encuentro Belgian Latin America Network, Belgique
77. Enfant Haïtien France Action (EHFA), France
78. Entraide et Fraternité, Belgique
79. Europe Écologie Les Verts, France
80. Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF), France
81. Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs en Education et en Culture (FENATEC), Haïti
82. Fédération Nationale des Syndicats en Éducation (FENASE), Haïti
83. Fédération générale du travail de Belgique (FGTB) fédérale, Belgique
84. Fédération générale du travail de Belgique (FGTB) wallonne, Belgique
85. Fédération des organisations paysannes pour l’intensification agricole et la promotion de l’agriculture familiale (FOP-SIPAF) du sud Kivu, République démocratique du Congo
86. Fédération syndicale unitaire (FSU), France
87. Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua (FUCVAM), Uruguay
88. FIAN Belgium – Pour le droit à l’alimentation, Belgique Fondation Frantz Fanon, France
89. Forum Nord Sud asbl, Belgique
90. Frères des Hommes, Belgique
91. France Amérique latine (FAL), France
92. Frente Nacional de Luta Campo e Cidade (FNL), Brésil
93. Fuerza de la Revolucionmanuelj (FR), République dominicaine
94. Fundación Embajada de Derechos Humanos, Venezuela
95. Fundación para la Promoción de los Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Paz, Équateur
96. Fundación Vivian Trías. Uruguay
97. Geomoun, Belgique
98. Grandir en Haïti, France
99. Groupe d’économie solidaire du Québec, Canada
100. Groupe d’Appui aux Rapatriés et Réfugiés (GARR), Haïti
101. Grupo « Solidair met Guatemala », Belgique
102. Grupo de apoyo a la solidaridad de Haití (Grash), Espagne
103. Grupo de Trabajo CLACSO « Crisis, respuestas y alternativas en el Gran Caribe », Amérique latine
104. Haiti Support Group, Grande-Bretagne
105. Hoopvoorhaiti, Belgique
106. IFSI-ISVI, Coopération syndicale internationale, Belgique
107. Informationsstelle Lateinamerika (ILA), Allemagne
108. Initiative Artisans, Haïti
109. Initiative Patriote Marien (IPAM), Haïti
110. Iraqi Social Forum, Iraq
111. Institut de Technologie et d’Animation (ITECA), Haïti
112. Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH)-France, France
113. Lyon Haïti Partenariats, France
114. Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres Macronorte, Pérou
115. Medico international, Allemagne
116. MISEREOR, Allemagne
117. Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien (MOC), Belgique
118. Movimiento Rebelde, République dominicaine
119. Movimiento de Integración y Emancipación de Derechos Humanos del Sur, Venezuela
120. Nègès Mawon, Haïti
121. Nou Pap Domi, Haïti
122. Observatorio de la Riqueza Padre Arrupe, Argentine
123. Ongd AFRICANDO, Espagne
124. Organizaciones libres del pueblo-resistir y luchar, Argentine
125. Osjosma vzw, Belgique
126. Other News, Italie
127. Parti de la Gauche Européenne, Europe
128. Partido por la Victoria del Pueblo, Uruguay
129. Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay, Uruguay
130. Partido de la Refundación Comunista – Izquierda Europea, Italie
131. Pazapas ASBL, Belgique
132. Pèp Lib vzw, Belgique
133. Plateforme haïtienne de plaidoyer pour un développement alternatif (PAPDA), Haïti
134. Plateforme altermondialiste, Canada
135. Plateforme Haïti.be, Belgique
136. Plate-Forme Haïti de Suisse (PFHS), Suisse
137. Plateforme Nationale des Syndicats des Institutions Publiques (PLANSIP), Haïti
138. Pour une Ecologie Populaire et Sociale (PEPS), France
139. Rasanble pou’n Chanje Lavi’n (RaCh-Lavi’n), Haïti
140. Red de Solidaridad con Chiapas de Buenos Aires, Argentine
141. Regroupement des Haïtiens vivant à Montréal contre l’occupation d’Haïti (REHMONCO), Canada
142. Relais France-Europe de la Fondation Max CADET d’Haïti, France
143. Réseau d’information et de documentation pour la solidarité et le développement durable (RITIMO), France
144. Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH), Haïti
145. Réseau syndical international de solidarité et de luttes, France
146. Réseau Sud-Est de Défense des Droits Humains (RESEDH), Haïti
147. School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), Amérique latine
148. Secours Catholique - Caritas France, France
149. Service Œcuménique d’Entraide, France
150. Servicio Paz y Justicia – SERPAJ, Argentine
151. Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP), Afrique du Sud
152. Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (SOFA), Haïti
153. Solidaridad Dominicana con Haití, République dominicaine
154. South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), Afrique du Sud
155. Suteba de La Matanza, Argentine
156. Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, Haïti
157. Ti Gout Dlo en Haïti, Belgique
158. Tysea - Hoop voor Haïti, Belgique
159. Union de Vecinos, États-Unis
160. Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP), France
161. Union Nationale des Normaliens/nes et Educateurs/trices d’Haiti (UNNOEH), Haïti
162. Vlaams Haïti Overleg, Belgique
163. Vision pour une nouvelle société haïtienne (VINOUSH), France
164. Women’s All Points Bulletin, WAPB, États-Unis
165. WSM - We social movements, Belgique
