man hurah aumohd proposal 1aug'08

8/6/2019 man Hurah Aumohd Proposal 1aug'08

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HURAH -- Human Rights Accompaniment in Haiti, Inc.

Tom Luce, President, 1515 Fairview Street, Berkeley, California 94703-2317Tel 510.428.1419, Skype: ; [email protected], www.hurah-inc.org

Tax-exempt 501(c)3 non-profit corporation

International advocates in partnership withAUMOHD Association of University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti with Rights, Haiti

FUNDING APPEAL,

HAITIS FIRST RESPONDERS:

HUMAN RIGHTS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL

Prepared by Stuart M. Leiderman for

HURAH -- Human Rights Accompaniment in Haiti, Inc.

California and Vermont

July 2008


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PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF HAITI, 1987

The Haitian people proclaim this Constitution in order to:

Ensure their inalienable and imprescriptible rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; inconformity with the Act of Independence of 1804 and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of1948. Constitute a socially just, economically free, and politically independent Haitian nation. Establisha strong and stable State, capable of protecting the country's values, traditions, sovereignty,independence and national vision. Implant democracy, which entails ideological pluralism and politicalrotation and affirm the inviolable rights of the Haitian people. Strengthen national unity by eliminatingall discrimination between the urban and rural populations, by accepting the community of languagesand culture and by recognizing the right to progress, information, education, health, employment andleisure for all citizens. Ensure the separation and the harmonious distribution of the powers of the State

at the service of the fundamental interests and priorities of the Nation. Set up a system of governmentbased on fundamental liberties, and the respect for human rights, social peace, economic equity,concerted action and participation of all the people in major decisions affecting the life of a nation,through effective decentralization.

Photos: U.S. Coast Guard (top); Eric Graham (bottom)


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Through our partner, AUMOHD, and its core work,HURAH works to enfranchise the most destitute andoppressed members of a variety of poor Haitian

communities. While helping them obtain the mostbasic freedom - freedom from illegal incarceration -AUMOHD is empowering its clients with the skills forlong-term survival and self-reliance in Haiti. Educationand training in self-assertion, demanding legal rights,and defending oneself against repression: these arethe skills they need to work against the root causes ofdiscrimination.

Tom Luce, President of HURAH, Inc.


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Human Rights Accompaniment In Haiti - HURAHHuman Rights Accompaniment In Haiti [HURAH] is a Vermont registered

501(c)3 charitable, educational agency.

Tom Luce [HURAH] and Evel Fanfan [AUMOHD]

In April 2004, Tom Luce met Attorney Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD at the HaitianNational Penitentiary. It was purely by chance. Tom was in Haiti with the EcumenicalProgram in Central America and the Caribbean [EPICA] on an investigative tour

following the ouster of Haitis President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Tom was visiting jailedPrime Minister Yvon Neptune and Attorney Fanfan was also visiting a prisoner there.Fanfan explained he was part of a young professional human rights group working withillegally imprisoned poor clients.

Tom returned home to his original peace and justice group, April6Vt Citizens Lobby,and began to focus on Haiti. Tom's connection with Haiti dated to the 1960s in Rome,Italy with a Haitian seminary classmate, Max Dominique, who later became a priestand resisted the Duvalier dictatorship. Attorney Fanfan invited Tom to return to Haitiand work with AUMOHD. They began a partnership in June 2004, Tom providingaccompaniment and financial aid and AUMOHD serving poor, illegally-jailed prisoners .

Tom formed HURAH in 2005

The partnership has worked for four years. AUMOHD [Association of UniversityGraduates Motivated for a Haiti With Rights, pronounced "oh-mode"] is a non-violent,non-partisan, volunteer Haitian human rights agency. It was created in 2003 byidealistic professional graduate students in the law, medicine, social services and

journalism. HURAH came about as a result of an investigative visit following theoverthrow of the Haitian government in February 2004.
http://www.hurah-inc.org/meevel.jpg/meevel-full;init:.jpg


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Currently HURAH is launching a fundraising campaign to help AUMOHD create abudget to fund basic salaries, equipment and operating expenses to ensure delivery ofits services rather than relying on volunteers. This will serve to embed human rightsadvocacy in the grassroots of poor neighborhoods with the AUMOHD model of servicedelivery, The Community Human Rights Council (CHRC). Victims and theirfamilies, community, school, church and civic leaders form the CHRC's in 4metropolitan communities now with another two in Bainet and Plateau Centrale alsoorganizing. Through self-empowerment and the professional assistance of AUMOHD,CHRC's work to advocate for their own rights.

Tom Luce with the EPICA delegation, Port-Au-Prince, April 2004

Sunset, Balcony, Hospice St. Joseph, Port-Au-Prince, April 2004
http://www.hurah-inc.org/sunset.jpeg/sunset-full;init:.jpeghttp://www.hurah-inc.org/tomepica.jpeg/tomepica-full;init:.jpeg


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INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

In peaceful countries, human rights are taken for granted;they seem like clouds that float in the sky, never demandingattention although occasionally commanding awe. Inpeaceful countries, human rights are mistaken for God-given,intrinsic planetary qualities. But they are far from it.Planetary qualities are gravity, salinity, biodiversity,volcanism, tides, weather, the change of seasons, themovement of tectonic plates, the atmospheric composition,and so on. These affect everything. Human rights, on theother hand, are conceived and perpetuated by people,exclusively for their own use, protection and self-respect.

There are no duck rights. When ducks fly south to avoiddeath by freezing, they dont proclaim rights in the face ofdeadly cold and snow, or against the shotguns of hidden

hunters. They either migrate or die. Likewise, there are nocoral rights. Ocean corals pile on carbonate to keep theirheads above the breaking surf, but this is an adaptiveresponse to rising sea level. Corals dont proclaim rights inthe face of global warming nor stand in court againstpolluters. On Earth, only people assert, maintain and defendhuman rights in the face of adversity.

Sixty years ago, in December 1948, the charter members ofthe United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights . It isremarkable that the new assembly of sovereign states so

quickly had to remind itself that nations were not the mostimportant entities. But indeed, by this Declaration, theyinvested the fundamental possession of societies andresponsibility for the planet in the individual. And onlyfrom the consent or correction of individuals can nations andtheir institutions be created, modified or eliminated. In sixscore years, member nations of the U.N. have come andgone, but the 1948 human rights declaration has remainedimmutable.

But it is remarkable that the farther along the United Nationshave proceeded, the more often its Declaration has been

threatened, attacked and violated with impunity. This iscounterintuitive; human rights should accompanyenlightenment, economic development and technologicalachievement, not fall behind. Why the opposite? Oneanswer is that there is still no effective response to tyrannywhen it stays largely within national boundaries. Tyrannypoisoned the planet for millennia before the United Nations,and tyrants still practice their black arts, even occupy seatsat the United Nations. Some would say it was a mean trick

1-DECADES OF HUMAN RIGHTSVIOLATIONS AGAINST HAITIANS:ON-THE-GROUND AND AT-SEA

[Writers note] In the midst of the sweeping

national morass, a storm of deprivationsconstantly rains on Haitis householdstowns and cities. Most are clearlyrecognized as violations of human rights. Ione were to go out on the streets and roadsof Haiti with the United Nations Declarationof Human Rights as a check-sheet, it isalmost certain that violations could bewitnessed and penciled-in next to every oneof its thirty articles. Indeed, Haitian andforeign observers have reported the historyof violations -- Haitian against Haitian andforeign against Haitian -- on land and asea. Here are brief excerpts of some, andselected news reports, chronologically from

the early 1980s to now. Full reportsavailable upon request.

The black boat people flounder on theshoals of U.S. policy. Schey, Peter A.Migration Today, v9 n4-5 p6-10 1981 Abstract: A review of internal Immigrationand Naturalization Service (INS) and StateDepartment documents show that theUnited States government embarked on a

patently illegal plan to deport Haitian boa people in circumvention of fundamentarights provided by domestic law and variousinternational treaties.

U.N. drafts asylum plan for Haitian boa people, Robert Pear, New York TimesDecember 31, 1992 [UNHCR] hasdrafted an ambitious proposal for countriesthroughout the Western Hemisphere togrant temporary asylum to Haitian boa

people.... In a confidential memorandumgiven to the Clinton transition team and tothe State Department, the High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, and her staff saidMr. Clinton's inauguration on Jan. 20 wouldcreate an "opportunity to fashion a humaneand effective response" to the Haitianrefugee crisis. But United Nations officialssay the success of any regional approachwill depend on the willingness of the UnitedStates to take in Haitian boat people whocan prove that they are genuine refugeesbecause they have a well-founded fear o

persecution in Haiti....


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to proclaim human rights and then leave so many in constantdanger.


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THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF HAITIANS

Haitians have suffered from tyrants for most of five hundredyears and have had to survive largely without human rights.Early colonists conquered, labored and exterminated thenatives as a matter of course. Later colonists kidnapped orbought Africans, then shipped them captive as slaves toplantations, then killed them if they tried to escape. AfterHaitian independence in 1804, a pattern of racism,retribution and oligarchy set in that, by subtraction of rights,cordoned off a peasanty, cousin to slaves. And with suchextreme polarity came a series of twenty-three constitutionswith no shortage of disappearing ink -- 1801, 1804, 1805,1806, 1807, 1811, 1816, 1843, 1849, 1874, 1879, 1889,1902, 1918, 1932, 1935, 1946, 1950, 1957, 1964, 1971,1983, 1987.

Over time, Haitians collective suffering has multiplied.Population has increased without commensurateimprovement in government integrity, will and capacity toserve and protect. As in other deteriorating countries, theprice is paid in loss of human rights. The slums are sprawlingbut with less room, privacy and security for each arrivingfamily. There are more gangs and weapons, but they areself-serving, not for the public good. The environment hasbeen so comprehensively destroyed that landslides just as

easily crush families in Port-au-Prince as in the ruralmountains. The constitutional requirement to decentralizepower has stalled. There may be minimal executive,legislative and judicial structures, but there never seems tobe enough expertise, ethics, employment security and pridein civil service to check corruption and protect people fromcapricious assault.

Foreign political and economic pressures continue todominate Haitis policies, laws and pace of implementationand enforcement. Self-sustaining at one time, the countryhas been pushed toward excessive dependence on foreign

goods and charity. Fog and fear now shroud the route backto self-determination. 10,000 U.N. troops [MINUSTAH] areuncomfortably present; some bivouac in Haitis hotels andschools, some draw high salaries by Haitian standards.Under these conditions, government and citizens alike donthave much to do but react. Under these conditions,professional planners become wishful thinkers, actually nobetter than the average person. Horizons are greatlyshortened and, again, a heavy price is paid in loss of human

2-Mr. Clinton faces a ticklish politicalquestion: how to reverse PresidentBush's policy and end the forciblerepatriation of Haitian migrants withoutencouraging a big new exodus to southFlorida...Asylum officersnow interview

about 100 applicantseach week inPort-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Theyhave approved 280 of the 2,590reviewed since February. The immigra-tion service is already making plans toabandon the policy established on May24, when Mr. Bush ordered that allHaitians intercepted on the high seas bereturned directly to Haiti. Since then,more than 5,000have been sent backto Haiti, without any assessment of theirassertions of persecution....The numberof Haitians picked up at sea droppedsharply after Mr. Bush'sorder. But ithas risen again, to more than 700 amonth in October [through] December....Federal officials believed Haitian boat

people would test Mr. Clinton soon afterhe takes office. "We and the CoastGuard have reports that more than 700boats are under construction in Haiti," foruse by would-be migrants, Mr. Austinsaid. The Coast Guard says the averageboat is 35 feet long and carries 100

people....

U.S. Policy toward Haitian BoatPeople, 1972-93, Christopher Mitchell,The Annals of the American Academyof Political and Social Science, Vol.534, No. 1, 69-80 (1994) In the early1970s, Haitians began migrating by seato south Florida without authorization.Influential economic and social elites inthat region pressed for federal action todeter this population stream. Until 1981,arriving Haitian boat people weredetained in Florida, and most weredeported as rapidly as possible. Since1981, the U.S. government has used theCoast Guard to intercept boats ladenwith Haitian migrants. Since May 1992,"interdicted" Haitian vessels have beenescorted back to Haiti, without affording

passengers an opportunity to requestpolitical asylum in the United States....


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rights.


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The worst consequence is a pervasive expectation of failure,meaning an almost-certain penalty for leadership. So,instead of leading, Haitian factions routinely cannibalize eachothers political capital. The result is that initiatives, evenelections, are met with suspicion. To Haitians, almostnothing seems auspicious.

AMERICANS AND HAITIANS TOGETHER

Its been a lifetime since Americans last suffered humanrights violations comparable to what Haitians nowexperience in terms of frequency, magnitude and ferocity.

Todays young Americans are likely ignorant of thehorrendous events that occurred in the 1960s throughout theSouth and in almost every major city. The United States wasrife with civil unrest, code words for virulent and shameful

racial prejudice, brutality and blatant discrimination injustice, housing, schooling, jobs, accommodations and votingrights. Back then, a hundred years after winning the CivilWar, the Federal government was still ambivalent abouthuman rights and operationally unprepared to fight for andenforce racial equality, respect and opportunity. Sadly, thisonly began to change when police dogs started attacking,churches started burning, people started marching andleaders were assassinated for their dreams of resolution andharmony.

It was a disgraceful period for the American legal profession,

too, not just the government. The eyes of many mainstreamattorneys were not on the civil rights prize but on protecting,expanding and profiting from white corporate privilege in theWestern World. In reaction grassroots, street-levelmovements for legal aid, minority advocacy, prisonersrights, public interest and community reconciliation quicklygrew. Partly by choice and partly from the continuing need,many of those latter attorneys and counselors, and twosuccessive generations, still practice and support humanrights law, not just in America but overseas, Haiti included.

The 200th anniversary of Haitis independence began in a

hopeful and spirited fashion but soon frayed. At the end ofFebruary, insurrection forced Haitis President Jean BertrandAristide from office. As he fled the country, the UnitedNations, United States and other foreign powers intervened.Ignoring the constitutional succession, they selected interimadministrators. Considering Haitis factionalism, this wasintensely antagonistic. Almost at once, tortured dead bodies,some decapitated, many executed, Aristide supporters andopponents alike, began appearing in the streets and the

3-American Anthropological Associa-tion Statement on Interdiction ofHaitian Refugees (adopted Jan 1994)

WHEREAS the democratically electedgovernment of Haiti was overthrown by a

military coup in October 1991; and

WHEREASover the past two years therehave been hundreds of documented

politically motivated assassination, rapes,and

WHEREAS the U.S. Government hasdeveloped a special interdiction policy bywhich the U.S. Coast Guard patrolsinternational waters near Haiti to preventHaitian citizens from escaping from theircountry, and Haiti is the only country inthe world to receive such treatment by theUnited States; and

WHEREAS Haitian refugees who try toflee face a racially discriminatory policythat denies the legitimacy to their right to

political asylum,

BE IT MOVED that the AmericanAnthropological Association requests thatthe U.S. Government end its interdictionof Haitian refugees and recognize theright of Haitians to flee their countrybecause of political persecution, andrecognize the legitimacy of their claims to

political asylum in the United States.

Norfolk ships Haiti-bound; U.S.reverses refugee stand Jack Dorseyand Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot

[newspaper], Wed, July 6, 1994 In astark warning to Haiti that the UnitedStates is moving closer to an invasion ifthe ruling generals do not resign, the Navyannounced that four amphibious assaultships from Norfolk will be sent to theCaribbean today. The ships will carry acontingent of 2,000 Marinesprepared toevacuate Americans and other foreignnationals if the need arises. At the sametime, the Clinton administration slammedthe door Tuesday on Haitian refugees,announcing that those picked up at sea no

longer will be allowed into the UnitedStates under any circumstancesThedeployment is a dramatic escalation offorces in the region - a total of 13

American and foreign warships will be inplace by the end of this week....


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countryside. Gangs, police and foreign troops attacked civildemonstrators. Businesses, homes and government


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offices were torched and destroyed, civilians were kidnappedand raped, and the jails were filled to overflowing. Therewas an urgent need for first response to preserve humanrights but neither the interveners nor the interimadministration were doing the job.

In April 2004, Tom Luce, a human rights advocate fromVermont, went to Haiti. Luce is a retired French and Spanishteacher who originally trained and worked as a parish priestfrom 1964-1970. For more than twenty years, he has been asocial justice advocate in New England, Guatemala and nowHaiti, with a focus on interracial affairs. By chance, he metAttorney Evel Fanfan at the National Penitentiary in Port auPrince as he was working to release an illegally-jailedprisoner. Fanfan is a law graduate of the University ofGonaives who had recently founded an independent, non-violent, non-partisan, non-profit organization calledAUMOHD. In English, the acronym stands for Associationof University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti with Rights,Haiti, and it is officially chartered and recognized by thegovernments social ministry. Considering the human rightsemergency and Luces desire to rally Americans to Haitiansside, the two decided to begin a partnership to teach,defend, protect and expand Haitian human rights, workinglocally across the whole country.

In November, 2004, Luce formed the American counterpart,HURAH [Human Rights Accompaniment in Haiti] as a 501(c)3

tax-exempt charity, incorporated in Vermont, to raise moneyand recruit individuals and organizations to help AttorneyFanfan maintain an AUMOHD network in Haiti. Governed byits directors and executive officers, HURAH is not amembership organization but instead prepares and sends aperiodic bulletin to subscribers (currently approx. 800),informing them about human rights news and needs, andencouraging them to support AUMOHD through tax-deductible contributions. Subscribers may also give theirtime and talent to activities in the U.S. and serve asaccompaniers on trips to Haiti. HURAH maintains a websitefor public information, international networking and to help

attract additional subscribers. There are no staff, per se.Instead, directors, officers and subscri-bers come forward astasks arise. Tom Luce serves as chief executive of HURAHand as liaison with AUMOHD.

In February 2005, HURAH brought Attorney Fanfan to theUnited States for a speaking tour. This launched thecampaign to announce and build the partnership. During theyear, more than 900 subscribers were enrolled. To date,

4-Thirst for Justice: A Decade ofImpunity in Haiti, Human Rights Watch,September 1, 1996 Haitis turmoil overthe last decade [1986-1996] demonstratesthe insidious effect of impunity for violent

human rights abuse. Despite repeatedofficial promises of justice and untoldopportunities to fulfill those vows,

prosecutions for human rights crimeshave been rare... [T]he unmistakablelesson of the past was that there would beno serious price to pay for politicalviolence....

The Situation of Human Rights in Haiti,by Adama Dieng, independent expert,to the Secretary General of the UnitedNations, 10 Sep 1998 [A/53/355] ...[T]he independent expert had expressedconcern at the deteriorating political,

social and economic situation and at the possible consequences of the departureof the United Nations Transition Mission inHaiti (UNTMIH).... His view, whichremains essentially unchanged, is that theHaitian National Police has not yetattained the level of professionalism thatwould enable it to maintain law and orderon its own....Since 8 June 1997, PresidentPrval has been faced with an impasse inthe Parliament, which on two occasionshas refused to approve the nomination ofthe prime minister-designate... Theabsence of a prime minister for fourteenmonths has had an adverse impact on the

human rights situation.... It is regrettablethat the government crisis...made itimpossible to take vigorous action aimedat the gradual implementation ofeconomic, social and cultural rights,including the right to health and the rightto education. Likewise, the transformationof society is still being hampered by theweakness of its institutions, and it sufficesin this regard to look at the deplorablesituation of womens rights, the violationsof the rights of children, the impunityenjoyed by those who commit serioushuman rights violations, the lack of

professionalism of the National Police andthe deterioration of conditions in prisons.......As the expert had already observed, thegreatest challenge faced by Haiti is tobuild a State ruled by law through theestablishment of a modern, effective,independent, democratic, equitable judicialsystem available to all...


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they have contributed $10,000, enabling AUMOHD to acquiresatellite internet access, an automobile for transporting staffand clients, computers and otherbasic office equipment, field equipment such as two-wayradios, and general expenses for telephone cards, travel andclient support.

During the summer of 2005, HURAH added a second elementof the partnership accompaniment when Luce returned toHaiti, along with subscriber Deborah Dimmett. WithAUMOHDs guidance and supervision, they visited prisonsand courthouses, participated in meetings with victims andfamilies of victims, and advocate for their needs tointernational aid groups. A third accompanier, Paul Reinekespent two months working closely with AUMOHD to raisemoney and write reports on the organizations work. Afourth accompanier, Jared Sibbitt spent three months in 2006supporting ongoing abuse cases and monitoring the nationalelections. Tom Luce made return trips to Haiti, bringingreports back to the United States, distributing them tomaintain the subscriber base, and posting information for thegeneral public on HURAHs website, www.hurah-inc.org

By 2008, it became clear that demand for AUMOHDs legaland educational services were growing considerably. Thisrequires a large increase in HURAH fundraising andaccompaniment. While small donors (subscribers) togethermay be counted on for $5,000 to $10,000 annually, actual

annual needs are nearing $100,000.

The AUMOHD-HURAH partnership is a serious first-responseto Haitis deadly and divisive civil crisis:

AUMOHD is a totally-Haitian organization led by youngattorneys who, in a peaceful country, would be instantlyrecognized and rewarded as civic leaders and statesmen ofthe highest order.

In strife-torn Haiti, AUMOHD works with strict neutrality.This means its expertise and services are available to all,

without regard to political affiliation, religion, gender orethnicity. This may be unique in the country.

Further, AUMOHDs clients are predominantly poor Haitianswho are victims of pervasive government and socioeconomicclass discrimination, coupled with threats, abuse anddeprivation of all kinds. In this regard, victims in HaitisCentral Plateau region sought AUMOHD's help after years ofneglect. Likewise, victims of Grand Ravin have also come to

5-The independent expert shares herview that despite social progress duringthe past decade, the judiciary remains

part of an exclusionary State systemcharacterized by a judicial system whichis inaccessible, ineffective and slow andwhich fails to respect human rights. As aresult, the majority of the population isessentially without legal services.... At

present, out of a prison population ofapproximately 3,500 detainees, 85 percent are being held in a pre-trialdetention which 15 percent are convicted

prisoners. This is certain a verydisturbing situation....

Haiti: Human Rights Review, Organ-ization of American States and UN

International Civilian Mission in Haiti [MICIVIH], October-December 1999 [its last published review] TheHuman Rights Review is a quarterlyreport prepared by MICIVIH which givesan overview of the human rights

performance of the Haitian police,prisons and the judiciary. It is based onthe Mission's work both at headquartersand in the field in the three areas of itsmandate: monitoring, institution-buildingand promotion... Appended to the reviewis a set of tables giving comparativeannual statistics since 1996 for policekillings, allegations of abuses, prison

population, pre-trial detention and"popular" justice.

Despite certain vicissitudes, the electoral process held its course and by mid-December there were signs of a growingconfidence in the electoral process....

A wave of summary deportations ofundocumented Haitians from theDominican Republic, and the possibilitythat it might exacerbate social and

political problems in Haiti, focussed muchof the attention of the Haitian mediathroughout November. The number ofdeportations appeared to let up aftertalks between the two governments andthe signing of an agreement to ensurethat the process was carried out in moreacceptable conditions respectful of therights of the deportees.


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depend on AUMOHD to pursue their cases. These number inthe thousands.


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AUMOHD members educate and advocate for the largestportion of Haitian society. They impart the creed of humanrights to help the poor gain the footholds they deserve. Thiscreed is grounded in the Constitution of Haiti, the Declarationof Human Rights and the age-old code of decency amongpeople everywhere.

Despite the responsibilities, AUMOHD continues to work atno cost to clients. But without independent funding (untilHURAH discovered AUMOHD and entered the picture), manystaff suffered economic meltdown, drained personal reservesand were forced to look for other work. Thus, regularsalaries are of utmost priority.

For its part, HURAH typifies the historical charitable responseof private Americans toward the poor and victimizedoverseas. This is especially so for Central and Latin Americaand the Caribbean region, where whole populations havebeen terrorized and held hostage by repressive governmentsor bloodthirsty opponents of fair government. The responseis intensified when Americans discover that their owngovernment has unlawfully intervened, with money,weapons, and even sabotage and political assassination.Most Americans are shocked, shamed and repulsed by thiskind of intervention and cry for withdrawal and reparation.

With regard to Haiti, HURAH is particularly sensitive andinformed: At best, the United States has been ambivalent

about Haiti as a sovereign black democracy. And at worst,U.S. intervention repeatedly tends to thwart Haitian stridestoward freedom, human rights and self-determination. Therecord is well-documented and harrowing stories have beenvividly told by Haitian refugees.

SAMPLE CASEWORK

As documented by many organizations and investigators, thehuman rights of tens of thousands of poor Haitians havebeen violated in the continuing political and factional strifethat accelerated in early 2004. The perpetrators are

criminals, police and other governmental employees, manyof whom still operate with impunity in the country, expectingand receiving little if any punishment for their crimes.Despite a national election in 2006, little improvement hasbeen reported. There are long-standing cases of humanrights abuse, additional large numbers of cases pendingagainst perpetrators, and suits for reparation of loss anddamages. The justice system is still severely handicappedby corruption, incompetence and lack of funds. The poor,

6-Another source of discontent was a strifor better pay and conditions by the two mateachers unions, as a result of which tstate schools did not function in October anNovember. This gave rise toincidenincluding claims that Jacmel police use

excessive force to disperse protestinstudents on 15 November and stone-throwinagainst private school students by staschool students in Port-au-Prince.

Armed crime continued to fuel widespreconcerns about insecurity, especially some well-known business figures weamong the victims and the persons killeHowever, there were very few incidents

political violenceRegarding respect human rights, there were only a smnumber of killings by police, as in t

previous quarter, while there wcontradictory swings in the number of casof ill-treatment... Prolonged pre-trial detentiocontinued to be one of the most sensitishortcomings of the judicial system despguidelines from the Ministry of Justice reduce levels and some ad hoc efforts address the issue.

There were some positive developments wregard to some long-outstanding cases arbitrary and illegal detention where releaorders had not been complied with.... Trenewed vitality of human rights NGOs anthe increased outreach of the Office of thOmbudsman were also encouraging signs.

Improvements were made to the holding cein a number of commissariats.Policustody conditions continued to be extreme

poor in the Port-de-Paix commissariat, wmen, women and minors all still held in thsame, dirty cell, and police officers still failinto fetch food for the detainees from the priso(see HRR July - September 1999)....As habeen the case in most of 1999, the right see a judge within 48 hours of arrest wextensively violated in Port-au-Princespecially in the central Port-au-Princommissariat...

According to figures provided by Inspection Gnrale in early October, sin

the creation of the Haitian National Police 1995, a total of 407 police officers have bedismissed as a result of an investigation bthe Inspection Gnrale...


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especially youths and women, suffer from a serious lack ofadvocacy and protection from indiscriminate attack.


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From the overwhelming caseload evidence, AUMOHDbelieves that most abuses have been acts of revenge againstformer members and supporters of the deposed presidentand his political party. Homes have been burned, peoplehave been imprisoned without arrest warrants, and othershave been killed outright. Prison conditions were and stillare inhumane. Over-crowding is severe; two cells wereobserved holding approximately 35 juveniles as young astwelve years old. Toilets are seldom present, bath wateroften serves as the only drinking water, and food is infestedwith bugs. Many detainees are held for months withoutbeing charged, and few court dates have been scheduled.

The abusers have included notorious civilian gangs, theHaitian National Police and United Nations troops [currently,MINUSTAH]. Among the most egregious of attacks was theinfamous "soccer massacre in the Grand Ravinneighborhood of Port-au-Prince, 2005, and another in 2006that included the assassination of human rights leader,Esterne Bruner. Even now, others are in hiding from gangs,rogue police and a vindictive prosecutor.

In the fall of 2004, AUMOHD successfully staved off acriminal charge against the leader of a teacher's organizationin the North that advocated universal access to educationthrough public schools. (Most Haitian schools today are inprivate hands and fee-based despite Article 32 of theConstitution that states, Education is the responsibility of

the State and its territorial divisions. They must makeschooling available to all, free of charge, and ensure thatpublic and private sector teachers are properly trained.)HURAH helped AUMOHD president Evel Fanfan fly to thenorth coast city of Cap Haitien in the spring of 2005 and filecounter-charges. By summer, the government had droppedall charges and the organizations schools reopened withoutfurther harassment; its leader has been able to come out ofhiding and resume work.

The first political prisoner youth released through AUMOHDand HURAH efforts, Reagan Lolo, has created a grassroots

organization, SODA , with the purpose ofdeveloping community services for Haitis street children.SODA now runs five schools for the poor, and includes a hotmeal program for those who attend.

The director of a home for street children in Port-Au-Princesought HURAHs help to save his project from imminenteviction. As partner, AUMOHD was able to delay eviction fora month until a new location was found and secured.

7-On 8 December, MICIVIH's DeputyExecutive Director gave a presentation tomore than 80 judges, prosecutors andmagistratesin a two-day conference onhabeas corpus guarantees in the Haitian

Constitution.,...With support from MICIVIHa five-hour programme of activities wasorganised for the detainees of Les Cayes

prison on 24 Octoberto mark the International Day of the Detainee

There was also a screening of the Creoleversion of MICIVIH's 56-minute videodocumentary, A Work in Progress: HumanRights in Haiti Although invited, police and

judicial authorities did not attend, except thestate prosecutorThe centrepoint oMICIVIH's activities for the 51st anniversaryof the Universal Declaration of HumanRights was a conference on "The Human

Rights Legal Framework, Nationally andIntern-ationally," held jointly with the StateUniversity law faculty at a cinema in Port-au-Prince on 10 December before anaudience of more than 300 law studentsand professors.

Haitian boat people being taken back byCoast Guard; 4 still hospitalized;Repatriation decision protested. CNN,January 3, 2000 -- From staff and wirereports -- MIAMI (CNN) -- More than 400would-be immigrants were being shippedback to Haiti on Monday amid protests fromelected officials and Miami-area communityactivists. All but four of the 411 people whoarrived New Year's Day on a rickety boatwere headed back to Haiti aboard the CoastGuard cutters Valiant and Resolute. U.SCoast Guard Lt. Carl Messalle said the 600-mile voyage usually takes about two days....Four Haitian women, three of them

pregnant, were brought ashore for medicareasons and remained in Miami fotreatment at local hospitals, Petty OfficeTony Wells said. Those four are expectedto be returned later.... The would-beimmigrants were crammed aboard a 60-footwooden boat, which the Coast Guardintercepted Saturday about a mile off KeyBiscayne, south of Miami. The return of the

boat people sparked protests from Haitianactivists in Miami, who criticized U.S. lawsthat treat would-be Cuban and Haitianimmigrants differently....


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Protecting street children is a priority with AUMOHD becauseyouths lives are often endangered by groups bent on"cleansing" the streets by murdering homeless children.With this success, the home asked AUMOHD to help establishit on a more solid footing with Haitis ministry of socialservices.

In the winter of 2006-2007, AUMOHD and others created aHaitian Nonviolent Nonpartisan Coalition [HNVNPC] to stopthe military-style attacks of the United Nations MINUSTAHforce and the Haitian Police against residents of Cit Soleil.

The heavy vehicles, machine guns and other weaponry werecondemned as out of proportion to perceived threats fromgangs and bandits.

THE PROGRAM - AUMOHD

Community Human Rights Councils - Early on, AUMOHDrealized that there were simply not enough staff andresources for the numbers of human rights victims needingand seeking free legal aid. The conventional lawyer-clientrelationship had to be changed so that many victims couldbe helped at once. Thus, a program of lawyer-assisted groupfacilitation, training and organizing took shape in the form ofCommunity Human Rights Councils. The councils haveseveral positive effects:

First, they efficiently channel, sort and assist clients by

location throughout the country; helping AUMOHD todetermine which lawyers to dispatch with a minimum oftime, travel and expense.

Second, they reveal categories of abuses and violationsthat are related in time and space, helping AUMOHD andclients understand their relative prevalence and danger bylocation, plus the class(es) of victims and perpetrators thathave been (and might continue to be) involved.

Third, they geographically distribute legal aid, investigationand remedies. This mirrors the Constitutional mandate to

decentralize governance and build local capacity. It alsoopens opportunities for local association and self-relianceamong legal professionals, educators and communityorganizers. Further, it gives Haitians, especially poor victimsof human rights abuse, the practice they need to defend andadvocate for themselves in familiar surroundings and amongpeople they already know.

In addition to direct assistance to victims, AUMOHD

8-Haiti 2000 [for year 1999], AmnestyInternational -- The climate of respectfor human rights established sinceHaitis 1994 emergence from de factomilitary government was dealt a seriesof blows in 1999. The five-year-old

police force, the Police national dHaiti(PNH), Haitian National Police,committed relatively few abuses indealing with protests in the run-up toelections in the year 2000. However,some officers were implicated in killingsin disputed circumstances, at timessuggesting possible extrajudicialexecution, as well as other serioushuman rights violations. In spite ofsome efforts to strengthen the justicesystem, 1999 witnessed a growing

backlog of untried cases andaccusations of corruption and lack ofindependence....

After nearly two years of political paralysis...Parliament appointeJacques Edouard Alexis as PrimeMinister. However, after President RenPrval failed to extend the Parliamentsmandate when it expired on 11 January,his appointment was never ratified.Without a Parliament, President Prvalessentially ruled by decree throughout1999....

The Inspector General continued toinvestigate alleged abusive behavior by

police, with mixed results. The PNHreported that 145 police officers weredismissed between January andOctober 1999, seven of them forinvolvement in human rights violations....

Five years after the return toconstitutional order, the justice systemremained largely dysfunctional....Sources in Haiti attributed frequentpopular justice killings of suspectedcriminals to lack of faith in the judicial

process....

Amnesty International was concernedabout the safety of human rightsdefenders in Haiti, who appeared to beat risk of abuse for denouncing politicaland other violence and misconduct....


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encourages groups of families and neighbors of its clients toorganize, learn about and advocate for human rights. Eachcommunity council largely chooses its office and meetingspace, determines work schedules, conducts research andreferrals in partnership with


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other social services in the same locality, shares and helpssubsidize equipment and vehicles, translation and guideservices, and lodging for periodic HURAH accompanimentvolunteers.

At present, is working or becoming involved in severalaggrieved neighborhoods and towns:

Cit Soleil [CHRC-CS] AUMOHD, with the support ofHURAHs financial and physical accompaniment, assistedformation of a group of single parents from this poorestneighborhood of Port-Au-Prince. A group of twenty emergedfrom AUMOHDs work with victims of illegal imprisonment.

There have been regular meetings to discuss human rightsand address abuses and deprivation. Legal aid and socialservice for arrested citizens is ongoing. In addition, thegroup chose access to education as a preventive goal. In thewinter of 2005-06, AUMOHD solicited CHRC-CS help to form acoalition to stop military and police attacks in Cit Soleil. Aceasefire began just as the coalition began demanding atruce. Last fall, the same coalition responded to water supplydamage and contamination caused by Hurricane Nol.

Gran Ravin [CHRC-GR] HURAHs funding enabledAUMOHD to investigate the grizzly, double massacre in GranRavin, a poor area of Port-Au-Prince, that occurred during thesummer of 2005. It is widely held that the crimes werecommitted by Haitian National Police and civilian attachs.

The massacres are still being addressed solely by AUMOHDand CHRC-GR survivors, eyewitnesses, family members ofvictims, and community leaders. The goal is to bring theperpetrators to justice. HURAH has provided AUMOHD withphysical accompaniment to homes and prisons, money forphone cards, transport of victims, autopsies and registeringof complaints. It has also obtained valuable emergencyprotection from the Irish human rights group, Front Line.

After the formation of the CHRC-CS and CHRC-GR in 2005,another was created in Pele [CHRC-P], and in 2006 in Croix-des-Bouquets [CHRC-CDB] on the outskirts of Port-au-Price

where another pioneering human rights struggle isunderway. The case involves serious intimidation tactics byrogue police elements and a former policeman, now districtattorney, physically abusing and then jailing CHRC-CDBmembers for advocating rights for fellow citizens. AUMOHDis now campaigning to have the prosecutor dismissed andbrought to court.

9-Human Rights Report for 1999: HaitiU.S. Dept of State, February 25, 2000 Haiti was in a constitutionally irregularsituation throughout the year.... [The HaitianNational Police] remains an immature force

that is still grappling with problems ocorruption and human rights abusers withinits ranks...

Boat people fleeing Haitian crisis; U.NSecurity Cuncil to address situationThursday. The Bush administration says refugees aren't welcome. LuciaNewman and Elise Labott, CNN, Thu, Feb26, 2004 -- The U.S. Coast Guardintercepted two boats carrying 140 Haitianrefugees Wednesday and was eyeingseveral other boats suspected to becarrying 250 more people. The incidentstook place just hours after President Bush

warned Haitians not to try to escape thepolitical turmoil and violence in their countryby sailing to the United States. Bush saidany Haitians doing so would be turned back.The Coast Guard intercepted the Margot, a200-foot Panamanian-registered freighterabout 10 miles off the Florida coastafterreceiving a distress call from the vessel'scaptain three hours earlier saying peoplewere aboard with weapons The CoasGuard said there were 17 Haitian nationals,four legitimate passengers and seven crewmembers aboard.... In a separate incidentthe Coast Guard intercepted a ship off thecoast of Haiti and transferred about 125

Haitians.... In addition, the Coast Guard ismonitoring several other small boats.... ACoast Guard spokesman refused to discussthe ongoing operations, except to say theagency was conducting both air and sea

patrols in the area....Earlier this week, heavily armed rebelsentered Cap Haitien, the country's second-largest city, and seized the internationaairport, torched the police station, released

prisoners and broke into an arms depot. Anundetermined number of people were killed,witnesses said. The rebels are led byformer members of the army, which Aristidedisbanded 10 years ago. World FoodProgram officials said looting has becomewidespread in the rebel-held north, includinga grain warehouse robbed of enoughsupplies to feed nearly 300,000 people....


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In the coastal town of Bainet, another 70 people gatheredin November 07 to learn what is involved in starting a CHRC.In the large Central Plateau area in August 07, victims andcommunity leaders pleaded with AUMOHD to come toBelladre, a rural border town targeted by terrorists during2003-05, to help form a CHRC there. AUMOHD will be able torespond to these urgent requests when funds becomeavailable.

The councils have successfully organized victims' groups andprovided them with tangible assistance and advocacy inlocations where police massacres and other crimes againstinnocent people have occurred. A recent success has beenin Croix-Des-Bouquets where rogue policemen and a districtattorney were stopped from persecuting council memberswho were helping neighborhood victims. In another largearea of the country, residents of the Central Plateau regioncalled on AUMOHD to assist in a long overdue prosecution ofwell-known human rights criminals. Until AUMOHD, no otherorganization had responded.

With this Council model in hand, AUMOHD, supported byHURAH, has begun to make an important transition awayfrom strictly client representation and legal defense, andtoward being an important provider of multiple human rightsservices. This has promise; it is the kind of communityempowerment in the area of human rights that isfundamentally needed in Haiti today. Among Haitians,

AUMOHD's reputation is excellent, and is there is a demandfor more Community Human Rights Councils. Until now,HURAHs subscribers have together contributed a fewhundred dollars monthly. This was enough to conceive andstart the model program but is not nearly sufficient for thedemand, nor a match for the national problem.

Meanwhile, the workload of current and future CommunityHuman Rights Councils is daunting. The majority of Haitians,who number almost ten million, are poor and bereft of mostof the basic human rights. The success of AUMOHDsprogram will be measured by victories in numerous legal

cases and rulings, and by engagement of whole communitiesin the pursuit of their rights. Haitians themselves willsucceed when victims, families and neighbors learn to useand trust the community model, choose their priorities anddemonstrate courage against continuing threats. Similar tothe adage that All politics are local, one could say that allhuman rights, while universal, their recognition, protectionand enforcement are certainly local.

10-Haiti Human Rights Record, GlobalExchange, SanFrancisco, Apr 302004 -- The humanrights situation in Haitiis complex and

evolving, with manygroups bearing responsibility for andfalling victim toviolations. It is clear,however, thewidespread humanrights violations haveoccurred since theremoval of the electedgovernment fromoffice on February 29,2004....Many reportsof human rightsviolations have

emerged from theCentral Plateau. ThePlate-forme desOrganisationsHatiennes des DroitsHumains (PHDH)reported thatSavanette had suffered fromnumerous abusescommitted by armedcivilians and formersoldiers acting arbitrarily as lawenforcers....

Delegations..have reportedon a sys-tematic campaign of repression against[civilians], extensive evidence indicatingthat many of the victims of threats andviolence are supporters of the [Aristide]government [from Haitians interviewed]The Haitian people have been hit hard.Those of us from Bel Air, we are prey forformer soldiers and police. We easily canbe picked up by press who work foropposition.Example: on 3/12, during thenight the white men surrounded the areaand killed many people. Two bodies weretaken by those hiding and watching. [B]oth these men were young men and

now both are dead. They put a bag overyour head and youre gone.

2004 is worse than 1991a lot ofdifferent factions killing people formermilitary, FRAPH, most of the foreign


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PROGRAM HURAH

For the most part, HURAH raises funds and recruitsaccompaniers to support the work of AUMOHD and itsgrowing network of Community Human Rights Councils inHaitis cities, towns and countryside. Serving at the pleasureof AUMOHD and its priorities, HURAH visits and becomesdirectly involved with human rights clients, cases andcommunities. Assistance is provided without regard to race,religion, political affiliation, gender, age, sexual orientationor disabilities. At the same time, through bulletins and itswebsite, www.hurah-inc.org HURAH provides contributors,subscribers and general readers an important source ofpublic information and analysis about human rights in Haitiand of AUMOHDs efforts to redress and prevent abuses andviolations of those rights.

Because of Americas checkered history of intervention inHaiti, Americans with human rights consciences areespecially sought to work as accompaniers for AUMOHD andvolunteers for HURAH. To accomplish this, HURAH has amulti-state board of directors, and human rights volunteersin different parts of the country. HURAH also participates ininternational solidarity coalitions such as Jubilee USA thathas successfully lobbied for the cancellation of internationaldebt among poor counties, including Haiti.

THE NEED

As explained, AUMOHD is a small but effective, non-violentand non-partisan human rights professional organizationserving poor Haitians who are victims of serious abuse andviolation. HURAH now wants to enable AUMOHD to becomea salaried organization that can a) expand nationwide tomeet current and future needs and b) efficiently scheduleand assign HURAHs accompaniers to meet, comfort andwork with prisoners, families, neighbors and AUMOHDsCommunity Human Rights Councils [CHRCs].

Survival Funding [$116,000] Current needs are a

minimum of $500 per month for each of four current CHRCs,$60,000 yearly for AUHMODs staff, office and travelexpenses nationwide, $25,000 for equipment and solarelectric installations, and $15,000 yearly for HURAHsoperating costs in the United States. The total need for thenext twelve months is approx. $116,000. HURAH may beable to raise up to $15,000 from smallcontributors/subscribers, leaving a balance needed of$101,000.

11-More die in Haitis streets;neighbours blame masked police forspate of killings, but U.N. officialsdefend crackdown in capitals slums,Reed Lindsay, Toronto Star, Nov 7,2004 Port-au-Prince, Haiti The bodies

had been whisked away, but the driedblood covering a dirt-floored dead end of atwisting alley remained as a chilling signthat a massacre might have taken placehere on Oct. 26. Residents in the FortNational neighbourhood, which like mostof Port-au-Princes slums is a bastion ofsupport for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, gathered around thedarkening blood the next day. Some ofthem who were afraid to give their namessaid police officers wearing black hoodedmasks shot and killed 12 people anddragged their bodies away... Two dayslater, in a nearby slum area known for its

pro-Aristide militancy, residents saidarmed men dressed in police uniformsand black hooded masks executed fouryoung men. The next day, their rottingbodies lay face down in the street,covered in flies next to a pile of trash. theirwrists had been bound with shoelaces andat least two had charred fingers,suggesting they might have beentortured....Rights observers in Haiticoncede that it is difficult to documentexactly how many people have been killedand by whom....Haiti Human Rights Investigation,Center for the Study of Human Rights,Thomas M. Griffin, University of Miami

[Fla] School of Law, Nov 11-21, 2004 --"After ten months under an interimgovernment backed by the United States,Canada, and France and buttressed by aUnited Nations force, Haiti's people churninside a hurricane of violence. Gunfirecrackles, once bustling streets areabandoned to cadavers, and wholeneighbourhoods are cut off from theoutside world. Nightmarish fear nowaccompanies Haiti's poorest in theirstruggle to survive in destitution. Gangs,

police, irregular soldiers, and even UNpeacekeepers bring fear. There has been

no investment in dialogue to end theviolence.


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Sustaining Funding [$126,000 per year] To respond toexisting and anticipated calls for help, AUMOHD requires anadditional $25,000 yearly to start and maintain newCommunity Human Rights Councils. For this, both cash andlaw-related business development expertise is sought tocreate a separate fee-paid legal service from which fundscan be drawn to continue and expand the free servicesoffered by the CHRC network. The fee-paid service couldinclude the registration of personal records, commercialtransactions, land surveys, organization charters, etc.

GOALS, OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES

Goal 1. Provide for paid staff and overhead of AUMOHD andcoordination of existing Community Human Rights Councils.

Objective 1-1. Obtain $40,000 for the next twelve monthsstaff salaries [director, office manager, CHRC networkcoordinator], plus approx. $10,000 for office expense, solarelectric equipment, travel, accommodation and placement ofaccompaniers.

Activities. Continue building HURAHs subscriber base,solicit public donations, write and disseminate grantproposals, create job descriptions, recruit staff, equip office,communications, transport.

Objective 1-2. Obtain approx. $24,000 for next twelve

months support of four CHRCs [rent, fees, communications,transport, meetings, etc.] plus approx. $25,000 forequipment installation.

Activities. Purchase/rent/install reliable solar computers,phones and other equipment, cover operating fees, vehicles,space needs.

Goal 2. Provide resources and conduct training for currentand potential CHRC leaders in human rights work and socialservices.

Objective 2-1. Establish meeting places for CHRCs toconduct meetings, literacy training and human rightseducation.Activities: Task each existing council, use the activity topublicize CHRCs, attract clients who couldnt otherwiseafford legal aid.

Objective 2-2. Create a human rights advocacy and social

12-"Haiti's security and justice institutionsfuel the cycle of violence. Summaryexecutions are a police tactic, and evenwell-meaning officers treat poorneighborhoods seeking a democraticvoice as enemy territory where they must

kill or be killed. Haiti's brutal anddisbanded army has returned to join thefray. Suspected dissidents fill the prisons,their constitutional rights ignored

Cit Soleil, home to over 250,000is cutoffby roadblocks and shooting galleries.Fleeing residents risk violent death orarrest....All the schools are shutThe onehospitalhas been shuttered. Teachersand medical professionals either will not orcannot enter.... [G]ang violenceoverwhelms thehunger, disease,abandonment and despair of CitSoleil...There is no commercial traffic into

Cit Soleil. The marketplaces sit empty.The outside world and its food can only besafely reached in makeshift boats. Thelittle food that does reach Cit Soleilcomes at a premium. Few young menleave, as police wait on the other side ofthe bay to make arrests at the waterfrontnear the Venezuelan embassy....

The complete lack of impartial governmental support and security hasadded stifling fear and murder Paranoiaand suspicion are rapidly unraveling thesocial fabric that had been keeping these

poorest of the poor afloat for decades just above the surface of a seaof...malnourishment and despair.... On analmost daily basis, the Haitian NationalPolice (HNP)...often masked, select andattack a neighborhood in operationsreported as efforts to arrest armed gangmembers, with UN soldiers backing themup....

In response to reports of hundreds ofpolitical prisoners, arrested for suspectedsupport of the elected, constitutionalgovernment, or for criticism of the interimgovernment, the investigators visited

prisoners in two jails, and spoke with arespected defense lawyer.... On the first

visit, there were 42 prisoners in the cell,some already there for as long as 30days. None had been brought before amagistrate, as required within 48 hours ofarrest under the Haitian Constitution.


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services referral resource for access by community leaders.

Activities. Recruit social services professional to establishand maintain the referral resource and foster interactionamong legal, medical, educational, small business and othersocial services.


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Objective 2-3. Satisfy the CHRCs transportation needs.

Activities. Acquire funds for vehicles needed for communitytravel to homes, courts, prisons, courts, agencies, publicevents, etc.

GOAL 3. Regularize HURAHs accompaniment program tooffer presence, moral support and increased security of staffand clients.

Objective 3-1. Design and test an accompaniment programthat provides constant, minimal HURAH presence withAUMOHD in Haiti.

Activities. Recruit and task someone to design and becomeHURAHs accompaniment coordinator.

Objective 3-2. Launch and maintain accompanierrecruitment.

Activities. Establish a website presence, create anddisseminate brochures and other publicity, network withlegal professionals, Haitian-American attorneys, paralegals,students, teachers.

13- If Port-au-Prince is representative oHaiti as a whole, it is a country that isunder siege from without and from withinLife for the impoverished majority ibecoming more violent and more inhumanas the months pass.... The justice systemis twisted against poor young men

dissidents and anyone calling for thereturn of the constitutional governmentPrisons fill with young men...arrestedwithout warrants and...denied due

process. Partisanship and corruptiooccupy the electoral councils attention[with] little hope for free and fair elections.

Surge in boat people predictedCaribbean Update, Dec. 1, 2004goliath.ecnext.com -- The UnitedNations warned countries near Haiti to

prepare for another influx of boat peopleor refugees unless they quickly help the

poor and devastated Caribbean nation

reports AFP (Oct. 25, 2004). You eithenow invest in putting Haiti back on track oyou get a lot of boat people in the next fewmonths, said UN undersecretary JanEgeland, the world body's emergencyrelief coordinator. Too little has beendone.

...Haiti has descended into lawlessness inrecent weeks with at least 30 people killedand rallies demanding the return of forme

president Jean Bertrand Aristide...now iSouth Africa, where he arrived May 31three months after fleeing an uprising thaousted him from power. Since then a UN

peacekeeping force has struggled trestore order and the country's plight hasbeen made worse by a series of naturadisasters that have left thousands dead. Iis incomprehensible how Haiti, so close tosome of the richest countries in the worldhas so little social investment, so littleinvestment in humanitarian andreconstruction efforts, Egeland said.


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12-MONTH BUDGET [MID-08 TO MID09]

EXPENSES

StaffLegal Aid Director, half time $ 10,000CHRC Coordinator, full time 20,000Office Manager, half time 10,000

$ 40,000EquipmentSolar Electric Systems, 5 sets 10,000Computer Systems, 5 sets 10,000Misc. Office Equipment, 5 sets 5,000

$ 25,000OperatingRent, AUMOHD 1,500Rent, 4 CHRCs 2,000

Telephones, AUMOHD 1,500Telephones, 4 CHRCs 2,000Internet Service, 5 offices 5,000Gasoline, AUMOHD and CHRCs 5,000Vehicle Maintenance, AUMOHD and CHRCs 5,000Meeting Expenses, AUMOHD and CHRCs 5,000Legal Fees, CHRCs 4,000

$ 31,000

HURAH, discretionary in U.S. $ 20,000

TOTAL EXPENSES $116,000

INCOME

HURAH donors and subscribers $ 15,000Grants, loans, contracts 101,000

TOTAL INCOME $ 116,000

14-U.S. Immigration Policy on HaitianMigrants. Ruth Ellen Wasem, Cong.Rsch Svc RS21349, Jan 21, 2005 --...In 1981, the Reagan Administrationreacted to the mass migration of asylumseekers who arrived in boats from Haiti

by establishing a program to...stop andsearchvessels suspected of transporting undocumented Haitians. Thisagreement, made with then-dictatorJean-Claude Duvalier, authorized theU.S. Coast Guard to board and inspect

private Haitian vessels on the high seasand to interrogate the passengers....Under the original agreement, an INSinterviewer and Coast Guard officialwould check the immigration status ofthe passengers and return thosedeemed to be undocumented Haitians....From 1981 through 1990, 22,940wereinterdicted at sea. Of this INSconsidered 11qualified to apply forasylum in the United States....

On May 24, 1992, citing the surge ofHaitians that month, then-President Bushordered the Coast Guard to intercept allHaitians in boats and immediately returnthem without interviews to determinewhether they were at risk of

persecution.... The repatriation policycontinued for two years, until then-President Bill Clinton announced thatinterdicted Haitians would be taken to alocation in the region[to] be processedas potential refugees. Thepolicy lastedonly a few weeks -- June 15 to July 5,1994. Much like the former Bush

Administration Clinton[s] cited theexodus of Haitian boat people as areason for suspending refugee

processing....

On November 13, 2002, the INSpublished a notice clarifying that certainaliens arriving by sea who are notadmitted or paroled are to be placed inexpedited removal proceedings anddetained (subject to humanitarian

parole). This notice concluded that illegalmass migration by sea threatenednational security because it diverts the

Coast Guard and other resources fromtheir homeland security duties....


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HURAH OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

Tom Luce, President of HURAH. Ordained Catholic priest in1964 in Rome; married in Boston, 1970, raised three childrenand worked on interracial harmony in the inner city. Movedto hometown Barre, Vermont, 1982, began working onCentral American peace and justice causes, especially inNicaragua and then for more than twenty years in Guatemalawhere he helped establish a midwifery center. Beganworking in Haiti, April 2004 as part of an EPICA delegation[Ecumenical Program in Central America and the Caribbean].

In addition to theology degrees, holds masters degrees incounseling and in teaching second languages.

Henry Lambert, Swanton, Vermoint, Vice President ofHURAH. Retired director of Vermont Local Roads Program[adult education and assistance program for municipalofficials] St. Michael's College, Burlington. Mr. Lambert hasdegrees in philosophy and legislative affairs. Interests aregardening and the study and practice of non-violence.Member of Pax Christi-Burlington, practices mediation andorganizational consulting. He is married, father of threegrown children.

Joan Rae, Fayston, Vermont, Treasurer of HURAH. VicePresident and Comptroller, NECCO, Inc. [general contractingfirm] and a peace activist. My involvement in Haiti beganas a result of my daughter going there to work with women

in a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. She was there duringthe removal of Haitis president, Jean Bertrand Aristide. Ifollowed the events closely and became very concernedabout American involvement in Haiti and the generaltreatment of Haitis poor people.

Pernell McFarlane, Palm Bay, Florida, Director of HURAH.Native of Jamaica, spent early years as abookkeeper/accountant for various magazines in Jamaica.Came to the United States, received college degree fromNew York University. Employed at Harvard University asaccountant and then department administrator for 24 years.

June Levinsohn, Dummerston, Vermont, Director of HURAH.Nurse and teacher of English as second language. Workingin Haiti and in Haitian-American communities since 1981.Coordinates conser-vation, agriculture and educationprojects in northern third of Haiti, Twou di No to Janrabel.Believes that small islands of positive change can reversesome of the damage to Haiti caused by years internal andinternational strife and intrigue. She has chosen something

15-Haiti Country Reports on HumanRights Practices, 2004, Bureau ofDemocracy, Human Rights, and Labor,U.S. Dept of State, Feb 28, 2005 -- TheGovernments human rights recordremained poor. During the year, various

actors perpetrated numerous humanrights abuses, particularly during thearmed revolt and the authority vacuumthat followed.... Systematic, state-orchestrated abuses stopped under theIGOH [Interim Government of Haiti], butincidences of retribution killings and

politically motivated violence, particularlyin the provinces, continued.... Legalimpunity remained a serious problem....On January 1, the Government grantedamnesty to some convicted criminalsimprisoned around the country....

In November, Louis Joinet, U.N.Independent Expert on Human Rights inHaiti, remarked that the governmental

presence outside of the capital wasnonexistent. Joinet noted the weak andcorrupt state of the justice system....

Arbitrary and other unlawful deprivation oflife...continuedMembers of the HNPcontinued to commit arbitrary and unlawfulkillings. In addition, members of illegalarmed groups arbitrarily killed citizens....On March 20, five HNP officers arrestedfive youths from the pro-Aristideneighborhood of La Saline in Port-au-Prince.... On March 21, their bodies,bearing signs of torture, were found nearthe airport....

The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrestand detention; however, security forcescontinued to employ both practices....Despite the efforts of local human rightsgroups and the international community to

provide free legal aid, many interrogationsoccurred without.. .counsel. TheConstitution provides defendants with a

presumption of innocence and the right tobe present at trial, to confront witnessesagainst them, and to present witnessesand evidence in their own behalf; howeverin practice, corrupt and uneducated

judges frequently denied defendants theserights....Transparency International notedthat the country was extremely corrupt,and there was a wide-spread public

perception of corruption in all branches ofgovernment...


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'do-able' - establishing cooperative and school gardens,working with groups of Haitian agronomists and farmers.


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16-Haiti: Hundreds Killed AmidRampant Impunity, Human RightsWatch, April 14, 2005 The Haitiangovernment has failed to stop therampant violence in the capitalin

recent months.... Criminal and politicaviolence has killed hundreds...while the

perpetrators enjoy overwhelmiimpunity, said Joanne Mariner, deputy

Americas director at Human RighWatch. The authorities failure toinvestigate and punish daily acts oviolence creates a climate of impunity inwhich abuses flourish and people feecompletely defenseless

Haiti Human Rights Report, BilQuigley, Loyola University, NewOrleans, to International Associationof Democratic Lawyers, 2005 ..

[H]uman rights in Haiti are deeplytroubled. The attention of theinternational human rights community isvital to helping Haitians regain theihuman rights. In summary, all of thesystems that underpin an environmenwhere human rights can be exercisedand protected are each seriouslycompromised and together they create amost severe challenge to humanrights....The judiciary is dysfunctional and unableto perform its role as a check onauthority. The police are disorganized to

the point that no one even knows howmany police officers there are.... Theprison system is primitive and inhumaneand filled with people who have neveseen and will not likely ever see a

judge....

...As the Council on Hemispheric Affairssaid [May 2005], nine months after theInter-American Commission report: Theconsequence of this constant state oviolence extends well beyond theemotional and physical pain of dailydeath and injury tolls; it also has a direcimpact on civilian mobility, access tomarkets and public services, the prices

of goods and services, as well as thelikelihood of domestic and foreigninvestments, Furthermore, almost all othe islands humanitarian efforts anddevelopment projects have beenimmobilized by the presence of a varietyof armed factions and the overal

prevailing chaos.


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19- Arbitrary and other unlawfuldeprivation of life perpetrated by stateagents and others continuedthroughout the year.... There werewidespread kidnappingsof citizensfrom all social strata throughout the

year. While most were resolvedthrough the payment of ransom, somevictims were tortured and killed while intheir kidnapers custody.... TheCarrefour police station (also calledOmega) was known as a center oftorture and beatings of detainees....

Prison conditions worsened during theyear.... The most severe overcrowdingwas in Port-au-Prince, where theNational Penitentiary, built to hold amaximum of 800 prisoners, heldapproximately 1,800at years end....Prisoners and detainees continued to

suffer from a lack of basic hygiene,malnutrition, poor quality health care,and, in some facilities, 24-hour con-finement...[P]reventable diseasesincreased. The prison populationnumbered 3,670 as of November.

Approx 89%...still awaited judicialdetermination; only 417 had beensentenced. On February 19, armedmen attacked thePenitentiary resulting in the escape of 481inmates....

Police often apprehended personswithout warrants or on warrants

not...duly authorized.... The authoritiesfrequently detained individuals onunspecified charges or pendinginvestigation.... Detainees generallywere allowed access to familyand alawyer of their own choosing. Manycould not afford the services of anattorney, and the government did not

provide free counsel. Bail was availableat the [judges] discretion [but was] notautomatic....

Although the law provides for anindependent judiciary, in practice [it]was subject to significant influence by

the executive and legislative branches.Years ofcorruption and neglect leftthe poorly organized... system largelymoribund. Judges assigned to politicallysensitive cases complained aboutinterference from the executivebranch....

17-Overview of Human Rights Issuesin Haiti, 2005, Human Rights Watch,January 18, 2006 --Haitis already badhuman rights conditions worsened in2005. Citing summary executions,mob violence, torture and arbitrary;

arrests, the head of the human rightssection of the [UN] mission in Haiti toldreporters in October that the countryssituation was catastrophic.. Withwaves of violence engulfing the country,especially the capitalHaiti remainsunstable and dangerous. In Port-au-Prince, clashes between rival criminalgangs,some associated with former

president Aristide, result daily in civiliandeaths... In the provinces, irregulararmed groupsexercise de factoauthority... Government institu-tions arelargely dysfunctional and securityforceswoefully inadequate, abuses go

unpunished and violent crime rates havesoared....

Police lawlessness is a majorcontributor Not only are the [HNP]largely incompetent,they are respon-sible for frequent arbitrary; arrests,torture, beatings, and the excessive andindiscriminate use of force They alsoface credible allegations of extrajudicialexecutions and of involve-ment in drugtrafficking and other criminal activity....Human Rights Watch knows of nomembers of the HNP who have facedcriminal prosecution for their abusive

conduct....

Haitis human rights groups blast UNon eve of election results in Haiti,Haiti Information Project, Feb 10,2006, haitiaction.net On January 27,several Haitian human rightsorganizations announced a joint initiativeto investigateabuses in Cite Soleil, aPort-au-Prince slum where the UnitedNations (UN) has been using heavymilitary force in densely populated areasas part of a campaign to eliminatearmed bandits. ...On Feb. 1, adelegation visited Cite Soleil to

document damageand talked towitnesses... [in] the poor neighborhood.In light of the elimination of all of thevoting stationsfor elections held onFeb. 7, the fact-finding mission alsosought to determine whetherresidents right to vote were respected.

18-Evel Fanfan of AUMOHDemphasized that the way citizens in CiteSoleil are being treated by the UN is acrime against human dignity in Haiti anda form of modern barbarity. The Feb. 1fact-finding mission revealed that the UN

has been using armor-piercing bullets andcannons The delegation found that CiteSoleils population had shrunkdramatically... In some neighborhoodsonly 30 percent of the population remains,and in others even less, according toPatrick Elie. Of those who remain, it isthe poorest of the poor, who cannotafford to go and rent in another place, hecommented. Even as the dele-gates wereconducting their fact-finding mission,MINUSTAH soldiers shot three morecitizens in Drouillard, two of them fatally.

Haiti Country Reports on Human

Rights Practices, 2005, Bureau ofDemocracy, Human Rights, and Labor,U.S. Department of State, Mar 8, 2006 --The governments human rights recordremained poor. Systematic state-orchestrated abuses stopped under theIGOH, but retribution killings and politicallymotivated violence continued throughoutthe country.

Various actors perpetrated numeroushuman rights abuses during theyear...arbitrary killings by the HaitianNational Police (HNP), disappearancescommitted by the HNP, overcrowding and

poor sanitation in prisons, prolongedpretrial detention and legal impunity, useof excessive, and sometimes deadly,forceoften with impunity, self-censorship

practiced by most journalists, widespreadcorruption in all branches of government,violence and society discrimination againstwomen, child abuse, internal trafficking ofchildren and child domestic labor....

There were credible reports of arbitrarykillings by some members of thedisbanded armed forces, by partisansofFanmi Lavalas (FL), and by streetgangs who were suspected of being paid

and armed by supporters of formerPresident Aristide....


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20-Despite the efforts of local humanrights groups and the internationalcommunity to provide free legal aid,many interrogations occurred without

presence of counsel.... While the

Constitution provides.. .[for] apresumption of innocence and the rightto be present at trial, to confrontwitnesses against them, and to presentwitnesses and evidence in their ownbehalf, in practice corrupt anduneducated judges frequently denieddefendants these rights....

In November, a joint UNICEF/IACHRdelegation expressed concern overgrave violations [against]children andadolescents... It said that children livedin fear and in extreme poverty[that]left them extremely vulnerable and

exposed to various forms of violence....

On March 28, armed assailants shotand killed two police officersand adriver assigned to the director generalof the National Port Authority.... On

April 14, a soldier from the PhilippineMINUSTAH contingent was shot andkilled at a checkpoint near Cite Soleil....On April 28, armed indivi-dualskidnapped professor, brother of theeducation minister, and presidentialcandidate Dr. Jean Henold Buteau fromhis classroom at the State University.His captors released him after payment

of an unspecified ransom. On May 13,armed attackers attempted to kidnapthe president of the Association ofHaitian Medical Technicians. [who] wasshot dead on the scene when sheresisted her attackers.... On October22, a corporal from the JordanianMINUSTAH contingent was shot in thehead and killed during an operation tofree kidnap victims....

[T]he IACHR]delegation concludedthat the lack of a comprehensivedisarmament program and a severelyunderstaffed and poorly equipped

police force helped to createinstability.... All [human righssorganizations] reported receivingthreats as a result of their work....


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21-Haiti Human Rights Investigation,Center for the Study of HumanRights, University of Miami [Florida]School of Law, March 11-16, 2006 --On February 29, 2004, President

Aristide was forced out of Haiti. That

day, the insurgents released all theremaining prisoners from Haitian jails.The insurgents and their alliesconducted widespread attacks onsupporters of President Aristide and onnon-political innocent peasants, whichtide triggered an epidemic of violence.They murdered hundreds, perhapsthousands, of people.Since then,human rights organizations estimatethat more than 2000 people have beenkilled. Many others have been arrestedillegally by the police or by unaccountable paramilitary groups, andhave been tortured. Thousands, and

perhaps tens of thousands, have beenforced to flee abroad or into internalexile.

Violence in Haiti over the last two andone half years has been well-documented While some of theviolence in Haiti is non-political, allidentify perceived engagement in

political activity as a significant riskfactor for becoming a victim ofviolence.... Some sources estimatethat over 1000 political prisoners sit inHaitis jails, the majority of whom havenever been brought before a judge.

Haitis justice system does not provide protection for people targeted for persecution. Those who complain ofcrimes by gang members are virtuallynever protected by the police....Judges are under significant pressurenot to release prisoners, regardless ofthe evidence against them Neitherthe police nor the judiciary effectivelyinvestigate or prosecute killings.

Although the government has madearrests in some high profile incidents, inmost cases these arrests are illegal andno evidence is presented against theaccused

MINUSTAH [the United Nationspeacekeeping force] has failed both toactively and aggressively investigateatrocities and to account for its ownhuman rights violations....

22-AUMOHD (Association ofUniversity Graduates Working for aLawful Haiti), a group which promoteshuman rights and individual dignity,offers legal and social assistance toillegally detained prisoners and other

victims of human rights violations. EvelFanfan, president of AUMOHD, iscurrently representing approximately 70young people that have been illegallyarrested, many of whom, he claims,were arrested by MINUSTAH withneither probable cause nor a warrant...

The Independence of the Judiciary inHaiti under the Interim Government,Bureau des Avocats Internationaux(BAI), June 19, 2006 -- Haitis judicialsystem has suffered from a successionof overbearing Executives, a lack ofadequate legal training and resources,

and from the rampant perception that justice is only for the rich. Since2004 threats to the judicial independence, both internal and fromwithout, have only increased under therule of the interim government of Haiti(IGH).... While Haiti has alwaysfostered a culture of the Executive,whereby the President wields moreauthority than a literal reading of theConstitution would provide, the interimgovernmenthas asserted almostabsolute power in the judicial selection

process. Because the Senate has notfunctioned since January 2004, the

Prime Minister has directly picked Courde Cassation Justices The PrimeMinister has also directly selected lowercourt judges. These... procedureshave had the effect of de-legitimizingthe judicial process as a whole... [T]heeffect has been most tangibly felt in therural regions of the country, wheremany unqualified Justices of the Peacehave been appointed because of their

political ties to [the] Prime Minister. The most egregious action taken byPrime Minister Latortuecame inDecember 2005, when he removed fiveof the ten Cour de Cassation Justices,

on the grounds that they were tooold.... Shortly after...removal, fivereplacements were hand-pickedandappointed through an illegal procedure.

23-Haitian judges remain largelyvulnerable to the political, structural,and cultural pressures that haveundermined the judicial system fordecades.... Salaries for Haitian judgesare notoriously low...and with literally

thousands of detainees languishing in pre-trial detention, opportunitiesabound for judges to accept substantialgrease payments in exchange forexpedited treatment....When asked whether a Prval administration will reverse the harmdone...nearly every judge, lawyer, andacademic interviewed for this reportresponded with hesitant optimism...

The viewis that there are twoprerequisites to judicial reform in Haiti:1) a democratically elected govern-ment, and 2) assistance from the

international community to apply thesystem. However, it is believed thattoo many conditions are placed on thesupply of international aid. As MarioJoseph of the BAI noted in an earlierinterview, the judges in Haiti are likewater in a vase, they will conform to theshape of container.

[O]n August 20, 2005, members of theHaitian National Police, acting inconcert with gang members wieldingmachetes and guns, caused mayhemduring a USAID-sponsored soccermatch in the Grande-Ravine at

Martissant slum neighborhood.General Car Carlo Lochat of the HaitianNational Police, was identified byHaitian investigators as one of theleaders of the massacre, and sentbefore a tribunal. However, in earlyMarch 2, 2006, he was provisionallyreleased, and it is unclear whether hewill be further charged....

Human rights abuses frequent inHaitis capital, News-Medical.Net,

August 31, 2006 -- Human rightsviolations including murders, sexualassaults and kidnapping - were

common in Port-au-Prince, Haitiscapital city, after the departure of thedemocratically elected president in2004, according to an online article

published in The Lancet.... The resultsshowed human rights abuses werefrequent occurrences.


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24-The estimates suggest about 8000individuals (around 12 per day) weremurdered during the period [February2004 to December 2005] and sexualassault was common, especiallyagainst children.... Criminals, theHaitian National Police, and UN

peacekeepers were frequently identifiedas perpetrators.

Human rights abuse and othercriminal violations in Port-au-Prince,Haiti: a random survey of households, Athena R. Kolbe andRoyce A. Hutson, Wayne StateUniversity, Detroit, in Lancet, August31, 2006 -- We assessed data froma random survey of household in thegreater Port-au-Prince area.... Ourfindings suggested that 8000

individuals were murdered in thegreater Port-au-Prince area during the22-month period assessed. Almost halfof the identified perpe-trators weregovernment forces or outside politicalactors. Sexual assault of women andgirls was common, with findingssuggesting that 35,000 women werevictimised in the area; more than half ofall female victims were younger than 18years. Criminals were the mostidentified perpetrators,... Kidnappingsand extrajudicial detentions, physicalassaults, death threats, physicalthreats, and threats of sexual violence

were also common. These findingssuggest the need for a systematicresponse from the newly electedHaitian government, the UN, and socialservice organisations to address thelegal, medical, psycho-logical, andeconomic consequences of widespreadhuman rights abuses and crime....

Haiti: Another UN Massacre in CitSoleil, Tom Luce, December 22, 2006

More than twenty... people werekilled by MINUSTAH troops in theDrouillard-Bois Neuf section of CitSoleil on Friday morning, Dec. 22, 2006

according to our Community HumanRights Council (CHRC) reps on theground in Cit Soleil.

February 2005, human rights attorney Evel Fanfantours the Northeast United States and speaks atHaitian Exile Conference in Washington, D.C. aboutthe blatant persecution of thousands of Haitians.


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25-In addition, the private middleschool, Diecee, owned by Mr. PerancyLauristal, a spokesperson for ourCHRC, was completely demolishedduring this military operation. Theschool was vacant for the holidays. We

have the names of some of thosekilled... St. Catherine hospital,operated by Doctors Without Borders,has been overwhelmed by the victimsbrought there. [AUMOHD] AttorneyEvel Fanfan has issued a call to theinternational community for help in thislatest [MINUSTAH] incursion into this

poor neighborhood....

AUHMOHD [Association of UniversityGraduates Motivated for a Haiti withRights, Haiti] has consistently decriedthe use ofhigh powered assault byMINUSTAH in poor neighborhoods.

Attorney Fanfan has called for peacefulnegotiations and for avoiding the killingof civilians and destruction of private

property, operations that would not betolerated in upper class neighbor-hoods. Todays operation seems to beyet another of these unwise moves, atrend like calling for the restoration ofthe death penalty and the army, that ismeant to destabilize the governmentand unfairly affect the poor, says

Attorney Fanfan....

Haiti Country Reports on HumanRights Practices, 2006, Bureau of

Democracy, Human Rights, andLabor, U.S. Dept of State, March 6,2007 -- Despite some improvements,the government's human rights recordremained poor. The following humanrights problems were reported:occasional extrajudicial killings

man hurah aumohd proposal 1aug'08

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