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Credit: Helmut Schillinger
In June 2009, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Rights & Democracy launched a new four-year programme called Strengthening democratic governance and promoting human rights in Haiti. This programme has three components:

1. Strengthening State – Civil Society Dialogue

2. Strengthening the Office de la protection du citoyen (Ombudsman’s Office)

3. Enhancing the Political Participation of Women and Supporting Political Party Dialogue



1. Strengthening State – Civil Society Dialogue

Rights & Democracy runs an advocacy training programme and provides financial and technical support to 5 civil society advocacy campaigns on important human rights and democratic development issues in Haiti.


Advocacy Training Programme

Since 2006, Rights & Democracy has been running an advocacy training programme for Haitian civil society organisations and has produced two advocacy tools as part of a series entitled Le plaidoyer : Un outil pour la démocratie (Advocacy: a Tool for Democracy):

The goal of this training programme is to build civil society’s capacity to participate constructively in democratic fora and to influence decision-makers on matters of public policy linked to human rights issues. This goal came to the fore when it became evident, during Haiti’s transition to democracy, that relations between the State and civil society were very tense, and that civil society had a limited capacity to effectively engage in the public sphere.  

Over 400 civil society activists from 180 organizations operating in Haiti’s ten departments have benefited from Rights & Democracy’s training programme so far. The programme’s influence is already being felt in the increased dialogue between the Haitian Government and civil society organisations around certain human rights issues.


Engaging Youth in Democratic Development

In 2007, Rights & Democracy held a two-day international workshop in Montreal on the role of youth in strengthening democracy in Haiti. The workshop brought together youth from Haiti and Canada, as well as government and non-government experts, to discuss key issues related to democracy in Haiti (poverty, education, women’s participation, crime and impunity). Upon their return to Haiti, the young people who participated in the workshop were able to share their experiences during a nationally televised event featuring over 100 youth and civil society activists in Port-au-Prince.

Rights & Democracy followed up on the workshop by establishing a formal partnership with FOKAL (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty) to carry out a project aimed at engaging youth in matters of national interest, and supporting youth-led civic initiatives at the community level. In practical terms, this project supports a network of youth clubs throughout Haiti’s ten departments. For more information on this network, visit their blog: http://vaguedufutur.blogspot.com/


Fighting Impunity for Violence Against Women

In 2008, Rights & Democracy provided support to Kay Fanm (The Women’s House), one of its long-standing partners, to make recommendations to improve procedures for receiving, recording and processing charges filed by women victims of assault at the Parquet du Tribunal de première instance de Port-au-Prince (District Attorney’s Office of Port-au-Prince’s Trial Court). Rights & Democracy also helped EnfoFanm (Women’s Info) implement a project called « Kisa lalwa di? » (“What the Law Says” in Creole), aimed at raising popular awareness and understanding of Haitian women’s rights legislation.

As part of its new four-year programme, Rights & Democracy is supporting an advocacy campaign spearheaded by Kay Fanm that seeks to 1) ensure proper processing and follow-up, within the legal system, of charges laid by women victims of assault, 2) promote the drafting and adoption of laws and regulations that further women’s rights, and 3) make Haitians and relevant government authorities more aware of their responsibilities with regard to violence against women. Rights & Democracy also provides financial support to Kay Fanm to produce annual reports on the status of violence against women and girls in Haiti.


Fulfilling the Right to Identity through Universal Registration and National Identification

Rights & Democracy has been working with GARR (Refugees and Repatriated Persons’ Support Group) on the issue of the right to identity since 2007 when they jointly carried out an important diagnostic study of the national identification and civil registration system in Haiti (to be released). In March 2008, Rights & Democracy, in partnership with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, organized a conference in Washington D.C. on the right to identity in Latin America. At the conference, Rights & Democracy and GARR presented the findings of the 2007 diagnostic study to an inter-American audience. View the webcast of the conference: Panel 1 | Panel 2.

Rights & Democracy continues to provide financial and technical support to an advocacy campaign spearheaded by GARR to make the national identification and civil registration system in Haiti decentralized and universally accessible, so that it does not marginalize or discriminate (particularly on the basis of gender, lineage and marital status). Indeed, a universal national identification and civil registration system is not only essential to achieving human rights, it is also one of the cornerstones of any democratic system.


Advocating for the Right to Food

In May 2008, Rights & Democracy, in collaboration with GRAMIR (Rural Research and Support Group) organized an international fact-finding mission on the right to food in Haiti. This was one in a series of country studies undertaken by Rights & Democracy as a means of promoting the advantages of applying a human rights framework for the eradication of hunger. The members of the fact-finding mission concluded that, despite its constitutional and international commitments, the Haitian government had not created the required conditions to guarantee the right to food of its population.

Following the mission, Rights & Democracy decided to continue its work with GRAMIR by supporting an advocacy campaign on the right to food in Haiti. The current priorities of the campaign are the ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the incorporation of a human rights approach into national food-security strategies. Rights & Democracy also supports GRAMIR’s efforts to mobilize Haitian civil society around the right to food, so that local organizations, particularly grassroots organizations in rural areas, begin to understand and advocate in favour of the right to food.


Ensuring the Respect for Prisoners’ Rights

Haiti’s prisons are overcrowded; prolonged preventive detention is commonplace; and detention conditions are appalling. Given this situation, Rights & Democracy decided to engage on the prison issue in Haiti by producing a report called Traitement humain des personnes détenues en Haïti (Human Treatment of Prisoners in Haiti) and by entering into a partnership with RNDDH (National Human Rights Defense Network). Rights & Democracy provides financial and technical support to RNDDH so that it may analyze the structural causes of these problems and lobby to ensure greater respect for human rights within the Haitian prison system. Rights & Democracy recently supported the RNDDH in carrying out a study on the Pétion-Ville Prison for Women and Girls (PDF, in French only) in order to obtain data which can be used for targeted lobbying activities.


 

2. Strengthening the Office de la protection du citoyen (Office of the Ombudsman)

Since 2008, Rights & Democracy has been working to strengthen the OPC (Office of the Ombudsman), the only independent state body devoted to protecting human rights in Haiti. Rights & Democracy has notably supported the efforts to raise awareness and educate Haitians and senior decision-makers about the importance of the OPC’s mandate, and to consolidate the legal framework in which it operates. At the 11th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Rights & Democracy spoke out in favour of strengthening the OPC.

As part of its new four-year programme, Rights & Democracy continues to work to strengthen the OPC’s institutional capacity in a number of ways, including training its team and helping it develop effective methods for receiving and processing complaints, conducting investigations and publishing credible reports on human rights violations in Haiti. Rights & Democracy is currently supporting the OPC in preparing a report on the human rights situation in Haiti for the Universal Periodic Review to take place at the Human Rights Council in 2010. 


 

3. Enhancing the Political Participation of Women and Supporting Political Party Dialogue

Rights & Democracy facilitates political party dialogue, promotes the participation of women and supports Haitian research on democratic development.


Facilitating Political Party Dialogue

In February 2008, Rights & Democracy supported a conference organized by the CPPH (Haitian Political Parties Convention) on the challenges of the Haitian economy and the role of political parties in addressing inequality. Well attended by youth activists, the meeting raised a number of interesting questions on political parties and the construction of democracy.

Rights & Democracy and the CPPH then drew on this experience and invited the Bolivian Foundation for Multiparty Democracy (fBDM) to conduct a mission to Haiti to engage in a South-South dialogue on the role of political parties in building democracy. A series of activities were organized in Port-au-Prince from April 28 to 30, 2009, as part of the mission. Activities included an in-camera discussion between members of the CPPH and the fBDM, and a public conference attended by over 150 people, most of whom were youth. The objective of the mission was to encourage discussions on the role and regulation of political parties, to present the experience of Bolivian political parties (particularly with regard to constitutional reform and electoral law reform) and to discuss lessons learned that might be of use to Haiti.

In the coming years, Rights & Democracy plans to organize other, similar activities, and to offer capacity-building trainings for members of the CPPH. It will also encourage members of the CPPH to promote greater representation of women within their own political parties.


Promoting the Political Participation of Women 

Since 2008, Rights & Democracy has been working with Fanm Yo La (Women’s Collective for the Political Participation of Women) to promote and encourage women’s political participation, as well as women’s access to decision-making positions within political parties and in government. As part of this partnership, Rights & Democracy has provided financial support to Fanm Yo La to train women running in the 2009 elections for the Senate and for seats in municipal governments.


Supporting Haitian Research on Democratic Development

As part of its new programme in Haiti, Rights & Democracy is supporting CRESFED (Center for Economic and Social Research and Training for Development) in organizing academic and policy-oriented round tables and publishing its quarterly journal Rencontre. Rencontre is a well-respected journal founded in 1989 as a platform for disseminating critical thinking about democratic development in Haiti.



Program undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Canada