Terror in the Caribbean: The Challenge of Human Rights in Haiti

With just a few months to go before this fall’s scheduled elections, voting officials in haiti are several million registered voters behind schedule. At the same time, hundreds of Haitians are taking to the sea in an attempt to escape the crushing poverty and violence of their home, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. (See Jim Lobe’s « Another Regime Change in Trouble, » for details.) While a wave of kidnappings of foreign nationals have made headlines and cued the U.S. and Canada to send all non-essential diplomatic personnel home, for the vast majority of Haitians, the lack of food, water and work at livable wages are just as terrifying.

Our partners, like Peasant Movement of Papaye (which recently launched a new website) and Platform of Human Rights member organization the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), [formerly NCHR-Haiti], are continuing their work to bring justice to all of Haiti’s citizens. ( You can read their latest news on their new website, here.)

It will take more than elections to make that dream a reality, but with perseverance and dedication, we know it will come to be.