(Geneva) The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed on Tuesday to provide assistance to the Haitian government in its fight to end the violence that is ravaging the country.
The Council asked the human rights office to provide Haiti with “technical assistance and support for capacity building in the promotion and protection of human rights”, as well as to appoint an expert to monitor the situation.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been in the grip of a political and economic crisis since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 and gangs now control more than half of the country.
“The barbarism of the gangs has reached a climax,” Haiti’s Ambassador Justin Viard told the Council, assuring that they “abduct, execute and burn alive elderly people, children, pregnant women.”
“Haiti faces one of the worst situations of poverty and terror in the world,” said French Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont.
The UN human rights office warned last month that the violence appeared to be spiraling out of control, with more than 530 people killed by gangs in Haiti so far this year.
Food prices have skyrocketed and half the population does not have enough to eat, according to the same source.
In October, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres relayed a plea for help from Prime Minister Ariel Henry and asked the UN Security Council to send an international force to Haiti. Despite statements of support from some capitals for such a mission, the proposal has not yet moved forward.
Tuesday’s resolution, which passed without a vote, called on the human rights office to quickly appoint an expert to monitor the rights situation in Haiti, with particular attention to women, children and trafficking. human being.
The resolution also ordered UN human rights chief Volker Türk to submit a periodic report on the situation in September and a full report next March.