OAS Vindicates NCHR Claims on Refugee Policy

New York , February 12, 1997 -- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has formally determined that the United States government violated regional and international law governing the treatment of refugees by intercepting fleeing Haitians at sea and forcibly returning them to Haiti during the Reagan and Bush administrations. The decision condemning the U.S. policy vindicated the efforts of NCHR and other refugee and human rights organizations who argued that the policy was illegal, immoral and resulted in the persecution, torture and deaths of many returnees.

The 60-page decision of the Inter-American Commission, an arm of the Organization of American States, was published on Nov. 8, 1996, six years after NCHR and several other non-governmental organizations and individuals filed a petition with the commission seeking condemnation of the Bush Administration's interdiction-at-sea policy.

Haitians fleeing the brutal Duvalier and post-Duvalier military dictatorships, usually in flimsy boats, were routinely picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard and returned to Haiti without the opportunity to seek safety as political refugees in the United States or another country.

The commission concluded that the United States breached several provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the human rights instrument governing OAS member states. These provisions include the rights of the refugees to life, liberty and security of the person as well as the right to seek asylum in the United States or a third country. The commission further concluded that the United States "must provide adequate compensation to the victims of the [United States policy] ."

"This decision has been a long time in coming," noted Jocelyn McCalla, NCHR executive director, "but is a welcome reaffirmation of the principle that the United States must honor its obligation not to return refugees fleeing oppression to the arms of the oppressor, as it did with Haitians in the 1980s and 1990s. We hope that this case will have an impact the next time large numbers of refugees head toward United States shores seeking shelter from persecution."