YouSaid · the spoken record

Jacques Létang

lines on the record: 12
first: 2020-06-19
most recent: 2020-06-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Unfortunately, the United Nations too often considers militant organizations as mere project operators, subcontractors or the upholders of bureaucratic logic. Yet they play an indispensable role as watchdogs of democracy in a situation where we are losing new points of reference every day. Civil society actors must be listened to and supported. I am grateful for having been given the opportunity to address the Security Council today.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“Donors have welcomed the rapid installation of an ad interim directorate dependent on the executive, thus bypassing the establishment of the board of directors provided for by the new law. BINUH’s latest press release has drawn widespread criticism. Against the backdrop of this institutional vacuum, how can one support a contested Government’s efforts to carry out constitutional reform? The international community is locked in a one-on-one dialogue with the Government in power. Its support seems to depend more on strategic interests than concrete actions to promote human rights. The need for stabilization silences popular protest, thus preventing an essential counterbalance to the excesses of power and paving the way for veritable social time bombs. Haitian civil society cannot be overlooked.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“That question arose in January 2010, when police officers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti failed to intervene to prevent officers of the Haitian National Police from firing on defenceless detainees at point-blank range in the civilian prison in Les Cayes. The strategy of continued international support must be revisited when there is a lack of national will. That is true for the national dialogue saga. It is also true for support offered to the Superior Council of the Judiciary or institutions that are supposed to combat corruption, but instead — far from independent — have demonstrated their willingness to take no action for change. The establishment of the National Council on Legal Aid is another such example.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“What about reparations for the thousands of victims? Although the Secretary-General has finally announced that he wants to assume responsibility for the failure of zero tolerance for sexual abuse, there is no mention of criminal or even disciplinary condemnation, as actions to establish paternity and enforce alimony payments remain theoretical until now. I myself am assisting the bereaved family of a young high school student who was hit by a United Nations car and who had been assured years of compensation that never arrived. Ensuring respect for human rights and supporting a weak State are conflicting mandates. By supporting a State, a mission links its fate to that of the State and risks losing objectivity, even if only in the interpretation of indicators. And what happens when the State violates fundamental freedoms?”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“Everything seems to be in place for us to be back in a new peyi lòk as soon as the epidemic is over. Clearly, the objectives set for BINUH are not being met. When one considers the resources invested over the past decades, the deterioration of the situation seems almost unintelligible. The fundamental causes of the instability have not been resolved; on the contrary, and one wonders how the friends of Haiti are allowing so much violence and misappropriation to take place. Do they not have the means to hold the State accountable for its commitments, be it only international commitments? It should be noted that BINUH has inherited several sensitive files. The cholera tragedy has fuelled a great deal of mistrust towards the United Nations, which has had such difficulty in acknowledging its responsibility, if not its guilt.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“Now more than ever, we find ourselves at a political impasse. There is no more parliament, no more local authorities, no more legitimate Government. The President declared that the institutions whose continuity he had a duty to ensure had lapsed. Legislation is now adopted by decree, without any consultation. The absence of any institutional checks and balances is further reinforced by the prolongation of the state of emergency, which jeopardizes respect for individual liberties and suspends public procurement procedures. All eyes are now turning towards the end of the presidential term. As is often the case, the polemic focuses primarily on the fluctuating interpretation of the Constitution. For almost a year, Haitians have been experiencing the confinement that the world has discovered in recent months.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“Far from embodying the renewal of an independent judiciary, that collegial body has become bogged down in political instrumentalization and a corporatism geared towards defending bad practices, first and foremost non-compliance with the judicial tariff. Calling for a new strike that will once again paralyse the system, the magistrates have denounced the ridiculously low percentage granted to the judiciary in the last national budget. The electoral process has been deeply perverted. Neither the Constitutional Council nor the Permanent Electoral Council has been set up yet, giving rise to countless instances of institutional tinkering. Far from forging democracy, elections lead above all to interference, violence and the instrumentalization of power. They do not establish a bond of trust between the people and their leaders.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“In spite of citizen mobilization and the edifying reports published by the Court of Auditors on the waste and misappropriation of billions of dollars, it remains unrealistic to hope for the organization of a PetroCaribe trial. These shortcomings are closely linked to the dysfunction of the justice system. Arbitrary detention is the rule. Access to a judge is not guaranteed to defendants, who spend years in so-called prolonged pretrial detention. Nor is access to a judge guaranteed to victims, first and foremost those of gender-based violence, who are most often silenced. The Superior Council of the Judiciary has not lived up to its disciplinary role. The certification process has never been carried out, and judges’ mandates are renewed at the will of the executive.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“This is the clear message that the State sends to those victims who put their lives at risk to file a complaint: at the national and international levels, they will get neither protection nor justice. The question of the involvement of the authorities in the perpetration of these atrocities is raised in many reports, including that of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti and the more recent one by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) on the Bel Air massacre. Those accusations are extremely serious, yet nothing is happening. It is that same impunity that hinders the fight against corruption.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“The La Saline case is undoubtedly one of the most serious massacres in our contemporary history; unfortunately, it is not the only one. More than 71 people were killed on the night of 13 November 2018, and dozens and dozens more have been killed since then, not counting the women who were serially raped, the houses set on fire, the hundreds if not thousands of displaced persons, the charred bodies abandoned in the streets. It is a neglected generation that is now being initiated into the harshest of cruelties. The problem is primarily one of impunity. Despite the precautionary measures ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in December 2019, there is no longer even an investigation, as the case has been blocked for months at the level of the Court of Cassation.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“The contingency and decongestion plans announced by the authorities have so far not been implemented. The State is losing more and more of its monopoly of legitimate violence. Many working-class neighbourhoods are being transformed into lawless zones, where everyone’s life is subject to the goodwill of increasingly well-armed and organized gangs. Most of the public institutions located in downtown Port-au-Prince are deserted. Armed bandits regularly cause the authorities, which are responsible for guaranteeing public order, to flee the courthouse. The State is less and less in control of the territory, including in the provinces, and one sometimes even wonders whether it has not lost control of the police, whose demands have repeatedly expressed themselves with violence. Massive human rights violations are on the rise.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source
“It is with pleasure that I am taking the floor to shed light on the situation in Haiti in my dual capacity as President of the Haitian Bars Federation and a member of the Human Rights Office in Haiti. The coronavirus disease epidemic has had a profound impact on the world. Haiti has not been spared by this wave, with a combination of health risks, a testing of institutional strength and an economic crisis. The public services are virtually failing. The most basic rights are not guaranteed, while the depreciation of the gourde and the hurricane season directly jeopardize the lives of millions of Haitians who are already food-insecure. The rapid spread of the virus is particularly worrisome in prisons, where conditions continue to deteriorate.”
2020-06-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/568 (2020) · source