"Global Justice Clinic", "International Human Rights Clinic", "Harvard Law School" and a dozen human rights organizations have signed a declaration "condemning the pressures exerted by the Trump Administration on Haitian actors to approve an electoral process, while ignoring the escalation of violence and human rights violations that undermine the possibility of free elections in Haiti"

This statement adds to concerns expressed by Haitian civil society in reaction to statements by a US State Department official in mid-September, encouraging President Jovenel Moïse to unilaterally appoint a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to organize elections without input from civil society, and then warned that those who do not accept the process will "suffer the consequences".

President Moïse appointed a new CEP by decree and instructed it to organize, in addition to the elections, a referendum on a new Constitution. The Haitian Bar Federation, constitutional law scholars, and civil society groups condemned this move as unconstitutional. In contrast, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince called it an "important step".

"The statement urges the U.S. government to recognize the legitimate concerns that Haiti’s human rights and civil society organizations have articulated, and put an end to statements that undermine these concerns."

SL/ HaitiLibre