UN Independent Expert on human rights in Haiti to visit Canada May 24-27

New report says hunger, illness, violence against women contributing to instability in Haiti

Protecting Human Rights in a Globalized World MONTREAL – May 21, 2009 – Michel Forst, the United Nations independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti, will visit Canada May 24 to 27 to discuss the findings in his new report, Rights & Democracy announced today.

Rights & Democracy is hosting Mr. Forst’s Canadian visit, which comes on the heels of his latest mission to Haiti. His findings since his appointment last year by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, are documented in a new report that will be tabled in June at the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Mr. Forst will discuss the details of his report at a public Rights & Democracy-organized conference in Montreal on Monday, May 25, co-presented by the Centre International de solidarité ouvrière and the Observatoire des Amériques. It will take place at 7 PM at the Centres d’archives de Montréal, 535 Viger Ave East, starting at 7 PM.

In his first report for the UN, he contends that the main threat to political stability and human security in Haiti is the extreme poverty endured by the majority of its citizens. He says the best hope for improving this situation is implementing adequate policies at both the national and international levels to fight hunger and illness across Haiti and stem the social impact of natural disasters like the hurricanes that decimated crops and left vast areas of the country in ruins last summer.

While vital, the international community’s focus on professionalizing Haiti’s police and judiciary and improving the inhumane conditions of its overcrowded prison system must be extended to protecting the economic and social rights of Haitians as well, the report says. For example, Haiti’s public institutions and services require critical improvements in order to guarantee access to essential services like health care and education.

Mr. Forst’s report also singles out violence against women and girls as another of Haiti’s major human rights shortcomings. Haiti’s government and its international donors must address this underreported “national scourge” of rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment, he says.

About Rights & Democracy in Haiti: Rights & Democracy established an office in Port-au-Prince in 2006 and works to strengthen democratic governance and human rights in Haiti by facilitating dialogue between representatives of Haiti’s government and civil society. Rights & Democracy workshops help train an estimated 200 civil society representatives a year in advocacy techniques and we are now working with Haiti’s political parties to encourage greater representation of women. In 2008, Rights & Democracy led an international fact-finding mission on the right to food in Haiti and continues to work with Haitian civil society organizations to ensure food security strategies reflect Haiti’s human right obligations.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Michel Forst, please contact Steve Smith at Rights & Democracy, 514-898-4157.

Rights & Democracy is a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution created by an Act of Parliament in 1988 to promote democratic development and to advocate for and defend human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programmes to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries.