Haiti has been an enabler of Venezuela’s descent into autocracy and chaos, even as it hosted and benefitted from 12 OAS electoral missions in the past 27 years. It voted against hearing Secretary General Almagro’s report on the state of democracy in Venezuela in 2016 and voted against a resolution at the June 2017 OAS General Assembly condemning the Maduro government’s plan to hold an unconstitutional election to choose a constituent assembly to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution. Haiti does not contribute to the IACHR. Its rate women’s homicide makes places it sixth in the world in femicide.
Below is a breakdown of Haiti’s actions and votes at the various venues we are monitoring. For more information click on each title and summary.
Scoreboard:
Freedom House | |
Freedom Status | Partly Free |
Aggregate Score (100 is perfect freedom and protection of rights) | 38 |
Political Rights (scores out of 40, with 40 being the best) | 16 |
Civil Liberties (scores out of 60, with 60 being the best) | 22 |
Reporters Without Borders | |
World Press Freedom Index | 30.21 |
Transparency International | |
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) | 18/100 |
Global Rank | 170/180 |
World Justice Project [1] | |
Rule-of-Law Index | N/A |
Regional rank | N/A |
Global rank | N/A |
UN Human Development Index | |
Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.510 |
Global rank | 170 |
Americas Quarterly [2] (last report 2016) | |
Social Inclusion Index | N/A |
Regional rank | N/A |
United Nations System:
United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC or Council)
Haiti has not been on the Human Rights Council.
UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review
As part of its mandate to promote human rights around the globe, the UNHRC has instituted a Universal Periodic Review, where, once every four years, each country’s human rights record is examined. Other countries are invited to review the record and make comments and suggestions for improvement. The country under review then acknowledges each comment by either “accepting” the comment, meaning typically that they agree to focus on, or “noting” it, indicating that they disagree and will not be focusing on improvements in this area.
UN NGO Committee
Haiti has not been on the Committee since at least 1993.
Inter-American System:
OAS Permanent Council
Under the new leadership of Secretary General Luis Almagro, the OAS has re-found its focus on promoting democracy around the region. This was shown most clearly in a meeting in June 2016 where Almagro presented his report on the state of democracy in Venezuela and proposed invoking the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR or Commission)
Haiti has not contributed to the IACHR since 2011.
Electoral Missions
In the past several decades, Haiti has hosted 12 OAS electoral missions, in 2017, 2016, 2015, 2010, 2000, 1997, 1995 and 1990.
Freedom of Information Laws
Since 2000 the right to information and freedom of information laws have expanded across the region. However, the existence of the laws on the books does not necessarily mean full enforcement.
Women’s rights:
Protecting women against gender-based violence is a human rights issue often overlooked globally even though it crosses social, economic and national boundaries. And according to the United Nations Population Fund, gender-based violence undermines the health, security, dignity, and autonomy of its victims. Although 16 countries in Latin America had modified their laws to include a specific type of crime referring to the murder of women by 2015, they are not uniformly implemented, and practices to convict perpetrators of gender-based violence are still extremely weak. A 2016 report published by the Small Arms Survey found that Latin America and the Caribbean is home to 14 of the 25 countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world.