Haiti: The Most Expensive Elections To Date
May Yield Little Benefit

New York, November 21, 2005 -- Haiti is lurching towards national elections that may cost the impoverished country as much as $100 million. “These elections may be the most expensive Haitian vote to date,” says Jocelyn McCalla, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), “but conditions for stable democratic progress barely exist. Consequently, electoral democracy may not trigger the functional democracy that Haitians yearn for.”

In a report released today entitled Haiti: Lurching Towards 2006, the NCHR notes that Haiti suffers from several important institutional deficiencies that hamper the establishment of a rights-respecting regime. These include a small, corrupt and unwieldy police force whose effective size remains a relative mystery since it collapsed before rebel advances in 2004. Corruption, abuse and maladministration are the defining features of the Haitian legal and penal system. “In Haiti, justice is for sale,” says Mr. McCalla, “they just don’t bother putting up the ‘for sale’ sign.”

“It’s great that the international community has poured so much money into Haiti’s elections. This should be seen however as a down payment. Bringing Haiti back from the brink of state collapse will require more than an electoral exercise. Political and socio-economic stability will be achieved only if the state institutions that anchor a modern democratic nation get substantial and substantive investment.”

According to the NCHR, this means significantly reforming, strengthening and expanding the police force and the judiciary. But even then these institutions will remain years away from being able to fulfill responsibly and independently their mission. Therefore the UN presence in Haiti should be extended for several more years, and adjusted yearly in accordance with verifiable progress towards the establishment of the rule of law. Haiti and the UN should share equal responsibility for state failure or progress. In addition to investing substantively in infrastructure, health and education, Haiti must tap the Haitian Diaspora’s wealth of skills and resources for public sector reforms and economic development. Finally Haiti’s northern and Caribbean neighbors should adopt and implement temporary migration measures that give Haiti the time and space needed to provide a decent and sustaining environment for all Haitians.

To access the full report, please click here