What are the challenges of and priorities for establishing post-disaster security and stability in Haiti? This paper finds that historical institutional and governance weaknesses and deep poverty compound Haiti’s humanitarian crisis. An integrated, long-term reconstruction strategy is needed, based on a very broad political and social consensus. It is important to resume and complete police reform and to prioritise preventive over forceful measures to control potential social unrest. Crucial factors will be the level of consensus reached on reconstruction between the government and the different sectors of Haitian society and more efficient cooperation from the international community.
Hundreds of thousands of Haitian citizens continue to experience severe hardship and increasing crime, violence and sexual abuse in precarious settlements in Port-au-Prince. With its administrative capacity decimated, state control over security is tenuous; the additional challenges of the rainy and hurricane seasons could further jeopardise state security provision.
The UN mission to Haiti, MINUSTAH, had been working to promote the country’s stabilisation and security since 2004. It had been helping to establish security, reform and train the police, provide electoral logistics and assist in border control. Since 2007, the combined efforts of MINUSTAH and the increasingly professional Haitian National Police (HNP) had helped to reduce threats of political and criminal violence and to generate a greater sense of security.
Even before the earthquake of 12 January 2010, 70 per cent of Haiti’s national budget was funded by foreign aid and the country was barely recovering from 2008’s severe storms. The quake destroyed the seats of all three branches of government, fifteen of the seventeen ministries, 45 per cent of police stations, and some courts and prisons. In addition, a number of senior government and UN officials were among the dead.
Post-disaster priorities are restoring security and the rule of law, maintaining political stability and meeting socio-economic needs. Armed gangs may re-emerge following mass prison escapes, the police need ongoing support to fulfil increased day-to-day duties, and severe, deep-seated socio-economic problems and political uncertainty add to the risk of social unrest.
- Sixty per cent of the prison population escaped as a direct or indirect result of the earthquake, including 300-500 gang members. Gangsters have quickly regrouped, re-armed and moved back into their old strongholds.
- The major challenge of prolonged pre-trial detention still requires urgent action. Strengthening the justice sector depends on the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ) becoming operational and independent.
- The need to speedily train and vet prison officers is more evident than ever.
- Institutional stability is at risk when it is most needed for big decisions regarding reconstruction. There is also uncertainty regarding elections due in late 2010 and 2011.
- Pre-existing problems of poverty, rapid population growth, very high unemployment, limited access to basic services, lack of basic infrastructure, environmental degradation and food shortages exacerbate a difficult security environment.
Efforts to ensure the institutional recovery of the HNP to pre-quake levels must be intensified. This will involve resuming the training of police cadets at the HNP school and speeding up the vetting and training of prison officers. MINUSTAH should assist the HNP in planning a community policing strategy for relief camps to curb sexual and other violence. It is also important to:
- Ensure the structural integrity of prisons, establish temporary courts, identify creative ways to speed up trials and finish revising the criminal procedure code
- Synchronise MINUSTAH and UNPOL personnel rotations with recovery and reconstruction schedules
- Pursue decentralised government services and regionally-based economic opportunities.
