LM Report 2004

Haiti

Key developments since May 2003: In January 2004, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the ICBL that the national parliament passed ratification legislation on 12 January 2004.

Haiti signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997. It is the last signatory in the Western Hemisphere that has not ratified. (Cuba and the US also remain outside the treaty, having never signed.) In January 2004, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the ICBL that the national parliament passed ratification legislation on 12 January 2004 and it would soon be published in the Official Gazette.^[1] In March 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again stated that the ratification legislation would soon be published, but this had not occurred by September 2004.^[2]

Recent political developments may have hampered the government’s ability to follow-through on the ratification. In late February 2004, a transitional government was formed after an armed insurgency forced the President to leave the country, and in June 2004 the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was established.

Haiti first pledged its support for a ban on antipersonnel mines in May 1996 and it was a supporter of the Ottawa Process that led to the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997.^[3] While Haiti has not attended any Mine Ban Treaty-related meetings, it has voted in favor of every pro-ban United Nations General Assembly resolution since 1996, including UNGA Resolution 58/53 on 8 December 2003, calling for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Haiti told the ICBL in 2000 that it has never produced, imported, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines and is not mine-affected.^[4]

[1] Email to ICBL (Sylvie Brigot) from Azad Belfort, Director of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 January 2004.
[2] Ibid, 22 March 2004.
[3] Letter from Ministre Conseiller Guy Pierre, Mission Permanente D’Haïti, Washington, to Human Rights Watch, in response to ICBL Questionnaire, 8 May 1996.
[4] Letter from Minister Fritz Longchamp, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to ICBL Coordinator, 31 January 2000.