Tougher measures are needed to stem the gang violence in Haiti that has brought the economy and government of the Caribbean nation to its knees by spreading fear and subjugating the population through killings, lootings, exploitation and brutal abuse, according to a report by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Latest figures documented by the OHCHR show that more than 3,660 people have been killed since January.
“No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality,” Volker Türk, the U.N.’s human rights chief said in a statement to coincide with the release of the report Friday.
He welcomed “recent positive steps,” such as the establishment of the new Transitional Presidential Council and government, and the deployment of the first contingent of the Multinational Security Support Mission, led by Kenyan police.
However, Türk observed that the equipment and personnel on the ground clearly were not sufficient “to counter the criminal gangs effectively and sustainably, and stop them spreading further and wreaking havoc on peoples’ lives.”
The report, which covers the period up to June, details extremely serious patterns of human rights violations and abuses taking place across the capital of Port-au-Prince. It documents at least 860 killings and 393 injuries, including at least 36 children during police operations “in what could constitute use of unnecessary and disproportionate force.”
It says the gangs have continued “to expand their territorial control and increase illegal revenues” outside the capital into new areas of the country “in which they could obtain further criminal forms of income.”
Ravina Shamdasani, the high commissioner’s spokesperson said gang violence has continued to increase and spread to the Artibonite Department, as well as in the southern part of West Department, which until recently had been largely unaffected by violence.
“In Artibonite, the country’s agricultural heartland, increasing gang violence and extortion have forced farmers to abandon more than 3,000 hectares of land, further imperiling Haiti’s food production, at a time when an estimated 1.6 million people in the country face emergency-level acute food insecurity,” she said.
She noted that the gangs are trying to maximize territorial gain as well as financial gain through all sorts of illicit methods, including extortion, protection rackets, killings of perceived opponents, and kidnapping people for ransom.
“They are doing everything they can to maintain this control, including raping women, raping children… gangs have continued to use sexual violence to punish, spread fear and subjugate populations,” she said.
According to the report, “human rights violations and abuses have persisted at alarmingly high levels. The brutal forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, have reached new heights, leading to irreversible harm for victims and survivors and destroying various generations.”
The report underscores the ambition of the criminal gangs to maintain control and power. It notes that gangs who have benefited from the political instability and have worked to destabilize the former government “are demanding political influence and amnesties, threatening to resort to heightened violence if their demands are not met.”
Authors of the report say the gangs are backing up their demands by warning the authorities on social media “to prepare for an even more intense battle,” and to reassess their action in view of the arrival of the Multinational Security Support Mission.
Following the deployment of the Kenyan peacekeeping troops, the report says a gang leader posted a video on social media showing dozens of armed men chanting their readiness “to take on these foreign soldiers” who they consider to be “invaders.”
Human rights observers agree that Haiti’s gangs are able to operate their criminal enterprises and carry out large-scale attacks using firearms because of the unimpeded flow of weapons into the country. This, despite an international arms embargo imposed on Haiti by the Security Council.
High Commissioner Türk is urging the international community to implement the targeted arms embargo, the travel, and asset freeze imposed by the U.N. Security Council, to stem gang violence in Haiti.
He also has signed on to numerous other recommendations set forth in the report, which are aimed at strengthening the police and other state institutions “crippled by endemic corruption, including the judiciary.”
Additionally, he is calling on the authorities to protect children from gangs and to redouble efforts to tackle gender and sexual violence and to protect internally displaced people.
Haiti has been in turmoil since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville. Armed gangs now control much of the capital and have spread to other parts of the country, where they have carried out massacres, kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence.
