Human Rights, Housing and Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti

Human Rights, Housing and Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Obstacles to Obtaining the‘Right to the City’
PLAN 7619
International Development
Term Project
Jordan Yves Exantus

2 | Human Rights, Housing and Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti
L’Union Fait La Force - “Unity is Strength”

Human Rights, Housing and Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Introduction 4
Haiti 4
LeFebvre & The Right to the City 6
The United Nations - History & Human Rights Framework 8
Thesis/ Synthesis 12
Background 14
International Human Rights Law 14
Right to Adequate Housing 16
History 18

Background 18
The Revolution 20
Modern Political Chronology 24
The Earthquake 30
Commentary 34
Works Cited 36
Selected Development Indicators 38
Table of Contents

Introduction
The National Motto of
Haiti is “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity” mirroring
the language typically
associated with the
French Revolution. These
three ideas are integrally
tied to the fundamental
principles behind
modern International
Human Rights Law and
the ongoing struggle for
human rights across the
globe
Background
“The native Taino - who inhabited the island of Hispaniola
when it was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in 1492 -
were virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years.
In the early 17th century, the French established a presence
on Hispaniola. In 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western
third of the island, which later became Haiti. The French colony,
based on forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of
the wealthiest in the Caribbean but only through the heavy
importation of African slaves and considerable environmental
degradation. In the late 18th century, Haiti’s nearly half million
slaves revolted under Toussaint L’Ouverture. After a prolonged
struggle, Haiti became the first post-colonial black-led nation
in the world, declaring its independence in 1804.
Currently the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti
has experienced political instability for most of its history. After
an armed rebellion led to the forced resignation and exile of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, an interim
government took office to organize new elections under the
auspices of the United Nations. Continued instability and
technical delays prompted repeated postponements, but
Haiti inaugurated a democratically elected president and
parliament in May of 2006. This was followed by contested
elections in 2010 that resulted in the election of Haiti’s current
President,MichelMartelly.Amassivemagnitude7.0earthquake
struck Haiti in January 2010 with an epicenter about 25 km (15
mi) west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Estimates are that over
300,000 people were killed and some 1.5 million left homeless.
The earthquake was assessed as the worst in this region over
the last 200 years” (CIA Factbook).
Haiti
Life in Haiti is not organized by the state or, or along the lines
many people might expect or want it to be. But it does draw on a
set of complex and resilient social institutions that have emerged
from a historic commitment to self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
And it is only through collaboration with those institutions that
reconstruction can truly succeed (Dubois 12).

Obtaining the Right to the City | 5
Haiti achieved
Independence from
France on January 1st
1804. As such, New
Years Day doubles as
the country’s national
holiday. Haiti represents
the legacy of the only
successful slave rebellion
and the first independent
black nation in the
modern world. At the
time, information about
Haiti’s Independence was
suppressed for fear that
it would inspire further
slave revolts; it is cited
as the inspiration behind
subsequent revolutionary
movements.
At a Glance
Location: Caribbean, western one-third of the island of
Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea
and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the
Dominican Republic.
Area: 25,750 Sq Kilometers
Climate: Tropical
Terrain: Mostly rough and mountainous
Env. Issues: Extensive deforestation; soil erosion; inadequate
supply of potable water
Ethnicity: 95% Black, 5% other races
Language: French (Official), Creole (Official)
Religion: 80% Roman Catholic, 16% Protestant, 3% Other,
1% none, roughly 50% practice some voodoo
Population: 9,801,664 (2012 Estimate)
Migration: -6.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Capital: Port-Au-Prince (Pop. 2,143,000)
% in Cities: 52% of total population,
annual rate of urbanization = +3.9%
Life Exp. 62.5 years
Literacy: 53%
GDP: $13.13 billion
Poverty: 40% Unemployment; 80% living below poverty line
Introduction
Haiti
Source: CIA Factbook - Haiti

Introduction
Space is nothing but the inscription of time in the world, spaces are the realizations, inscriptions in
the simultaneity of the external world of a series of times, the rhythms or the city, the rhythms of the
urban population...the city will only be rethought and reconstructed on its current ruins when we have
properly understood that the city is the deployment of time.... of those who are its inhabitants, it is for
them that we have to finally organize is a human manner (LeFebvre 17).
Biography
Henri LeFebvre was a “French Marxist philosopher and sociologist,
whose life spanned the century and whose major publications
begin in the 1930s and end with his death in 1991” (LeFebvre 3).
Over this span, “LeFebvre wrote about a wide range of themes,
from literature, language, history, philosophy, Marxism, to rural
and urban sociology, space, time, the everyday and the modern
world” (LeFebvre 6). LeBevre is widely known to be inspired by the
work of Karl Marx, yet “possibly the most striking and neglected
aspect to be commented upon... is the debt to Nietzsche, whom
LeFebvre sought to conjoin with Marx” (LeFebvre 5).
Great things must be silenced or talked about with grandeur, that is, with
cynicism and innocence...
I would claim as property and product of man all the beauty, nobility, which
we have given to real or imaginary things...
Frederic Nietzche (From the Preface of LeFebvre’s “Right to the City”)(LeFebvre 63)
Right to the City
LeFebvre’s first major writing on the city introduced rights into
the agenda. “It emerges as the highest form of rights: liberty,
individualization in socialization, environs and way of living... What
is called for is a renewed urban society, a renovated centrality,
leaving opportunities for rythms and use of time that would permit
full usage of moments and places, and demanding the mastery
of the economic... to participate politically in decision-making
[particularly significant for the working class]” and to promote
activities that restore “the sense of oeuvre conferred by art and
philosophy and prioritizes time over space, appropriation over
domination” (LeFebvre 19).
Henri LeFebvre
“As Professor Henri
LeFebvre, director of the
Institut de Sociologie
Urbaine at Nanterre
from 1965, he was
concerned about
changing the teaching of
urbanism so as to make
it interdisciplinary. Yet
at the end of the 1980s
he commented on the
continuing neglect
of urban questions in
university teaching”
(LeFebvre 16)
LeFebvre

David Harvey
(PhD Cambridge 1962)
Distinguished Professor
City University of New York
PhD Program in
Anthropology
Cultural, Urbanization,
environment, political
economy, geography
and social theory;
Advanced capitalist
countries
LeFebvre’s Legacy
Henri LeFebvre’s work has inspired several “legacies” (scholars)
who have analyzed and expanded LeFebvre’s work and
consequently his legacy. David Harvey’s work on Social Justice
and the City is the most directly influenced by LeFebvre’s Right
to the City ideals.
The Right to the City
The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to
access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by
changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an
individual right since this transformation inevitably depends
upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the
processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake
our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most
precious yet most neglected of our human rights (Harvey 23).
Property and Pacification
Quality of urban life has become a commodity, as has the
city itself, in a world where consumerism, tourism, cultural and
knowledge-based industries have become major aspects of
the urban political economy. The postmodernist penchant for
encouragingtheformationofmarketniches—inbothconsumer
habits and cultural forms—surrounds the contemporary urban
experience with an aura of freedom of choice, provided you
have the money. Shopping malls, multiplexes and box stores
proliferate, as do fast-food and artisanal market-places. We
now have, as urban sociologist Sharon Zukin puts it, ‘pacification
by cappuccino’ (Harvey 31).
The Right to the City
Introduction

Introduction
The name “United
Nations”, coined by
United States President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
was first used in the
Declaration by United
Nations of 1 January 1942,
during the Second World
War, when representatives
of 26 nations pledged
their Governments to
continue fighting together
against the Axis Powers.
History
“States first established international organizations to cooperate
on specific matters. The International Telecommunication Union
was founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, and
the Universal Postal Union was established in 1874. Both are now
United Nations specialized agencies.
In 1899, the International Peace Conference was held in The Hague
to elaborate instruments for settling crises peacefully, preventing
wars and codifying rules of warfare. It adopted the Convention for
the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and established
the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which began work in 1902.
The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations,
an organization conceived in similar circumstances during the first
World War, and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles
“to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace
and security.” The International Labour Organization was also
created under the Treaty of Versailles as an affiliated agency
of the League. The League of Nations ceased its activities after
failing to prevent the Second World War.
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at
the United Nations Conference on International Organization to
draw up the United Nations Charter. Those delegates deliberated
on the basis of proposals worked out by the representatives of
China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United
States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States in August-October 1944.
The Charter was signed on 26 June 1945 by the representatives
of the 50 countries. Poland, which was not represented at the
Conference, signed it later and became one of the original 51
Member States.
The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October
1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the
Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a
majority of other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated on
24 October each year.”
The United Nations
Source: History of the United Nations (www.un.org)

For many centuries, there
was no international
human rights law
regime in place. In
fact, international
law supported and
colluded in many of
the worst human rights
atrocities, including the
Atlantic Slave Trade and
colonialism. It was only
in the nineteenth century
that the international
community adopted a
treaty abolishing slavery”
(Viljoen 1).
Human Rights Bodies
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
works to offer the best expertise and support to the different
human rights monitoring mechanisms in the United Nations system:
UN Charter-based bodies, including the Human Rights Council,
and bodies created under the international human rights treaties
and made up of independent experts mandated to monitor State
parties’ compliance with their treaty obligations. Most of these
bodies receive secretariat support from the Human Rights Council
and Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR).
Charter-based bodies
• Human Rights Council
• Universal Periodic Review
• Commission on Human Rights
(replaced by the Human Rights Council)
• Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
• Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure
Treaty-based bodies
There are ten human rights treaty bodies that monitor
implementation of the core international human rights treaties:
1. Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
2. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
3. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
4. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW)
5. Committee against Torture (CAT)
6. Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT)
7. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
8. Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)
9. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD
10. Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)
Introduction
Human Rights Framework
Source: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (www.ohchr.org)

Introduction
The Charter of the United
Nations was signed
on 26 June 1945, in
San Francisco, at the
conclusion of the United
Nations Conference
on International
Organization, and came
into force on 24 October
1945. The Statute of the
International Court of
Justice is an integral part
of the Charter .
(www.un.org)
Charter-based Bodies
Charter bodies include the former Commission on Human Rights, the
Human Rights Council, and Special Procedures. The Human Rights
Council, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights, held its first
meeting on 19 June 2006. This intergovernmental body, which meets
in Geneva 10 weeks a year, is composed of 47 elected United Nations
Member States who serve for an initial period of 3 years, and cannot be
elected for more than two consecutive terms. The Human Rights Council
is a forum empowered to prevent abuses, inequity and discrimination,
protect the most vulnerable, and expose perpetrators.
The Human Rights Council is a separate entity from OHCHR. This distinction
originates from the separate mandates they were given by the General
Assembly. Nevertheless, OHCHR provides substantive support for the
meetings of the Human Rights Council, and follow-up to the Council’s
deliberations.
Special Procedures is the general name given to the mechanisms
established by the Commission on Human Rights and assumed by the
Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures are either
an individual –a special rapporteur or representative, or independent
expert—or a working group. They are prominent, independent experts
working on a voluntary basis, appointed by the Human Rights Council.
Special Procedures’ mandates usually call on mandate-holders to
examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations
in specific countries or territories, known as country mandates, or on
major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide, known as
thematic mandates. There are 30 thematic mandates and 8 country
mandates. All report to the Human Rights Council on their findings and
recommendations. They are sometimes the only mechanism that will
alert the international community on certain human rights issues.
OHCHR supports the work of rapporteurs, representatives and working
groups through its Special Procedures Division (SPD) which services 27
thematic mandates; and the Research and Right to Development
Division (RRDD) which aims to improve the integration of human rights
standards and principles, including the rights to development; while the
Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division (FOTCD) supports
the work of country-mandates.

The human rights treaty
bodies are committees of
independent experts that
monitor implementation
of the core international
human rights treaties. Each
State party to a treaty has
an obligation to take steps
to ensure that everyone
in the State can enjoy the
rights set out in the treaty.
Treaty bodies composed
of independent experts of
recognized competence
in human rights are
nominated and elected for
fixed renewable terms of
four years by State parties.
Treaty-based Bodies
There are nine core international human rights treaties, the most recent
one -- on enforced disappearance -- entered into force on 23 December
2010. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in
1948, all UN Member States have ratified at least one core international
human rights treaty, and 80 percent have ratified four or more.
There are currently ten human rights treaty bodies, which are
committees of independent experts. Nine of these treaty bodies monitor
implementation of the core international human rights treaties while
the tenth treaty body, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture,
established under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture, monitors places of detention in States parties to the Optional
Protocol.
The treaty bodies are created in accordance with the provisions of the
treaty that they monitor. OHCHR supports the work of treaty bodies
and assists them in harmonizing their working methods and reporting
requirements through their secretariats.
There are other United Nations bodies and entities involved in the
promotion and protection of human rights
Introduction

Core Concept
This report seeks to achieve a nexus between the core principles of Henri
LeFebvre’s“Right to the City”concept, the United Nation’s Human Rights
Framework and the basic Natural (universal and inalienable) Rights
defined over the years by theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,
and Thomas Paine.
Central to this discussion is the LeFebvre assertion that “capitalist cities
convert what remains of the classical city-oeuvres into a commodified
terrain for speculation... afterwards, the city ceases to be the central
social form and becomes inserted into a far larger capitalist, global
network”(Production de l’espace 1974). If we assume that the dominant
economic paradigm follows capitalist trends, then the reality of urban
life in important urban centers such as Sao Paolo (or Port-Au-Prince) is
the misery of many,“which sustains the luxury and privileges of the few,
and on whom its dynamic growth is based and from whom its prosperity
is stolen” ( Sao Paolo 11). In this context, there is an observed pattern
of “economic growth based on the destruction of the lives of workers
obliged to labour excessive hours to compensate for the reduced
purchasing power of their wages” (Sao Paolo 14). While historically,
it made economic sense for companies to provide housing for their
employees. “With the intensification of industrial growth, the number
of workers increased rapidly” creating a surplus labor force and high
volumes of rural-urban migration. This resulted in increased demand for
housingandsimultaneouslyincreasedvalueofrealestate. “Consequently
employers transferred the cost of housing and of transport to the workers
themselves, and the cost of basic urban services, to the state”(Sao Paolo
31). This dynamic has resulted in the proliferation of slums in urban areas.
In Haiti, the outcomes of historical issues have been compounded in the
aftermath of the 2010 Earthquake and the resultant displacement which
has seen millions of people forced to live in makeshift camps, informal
developments and heavily damaged homes.
Slum dwellers are
affected by an inability
to procure good food
(malnutrition) and access
to sanitary conditions. As
a result, general health
becomes a major issue
for people with little or
no access to proper
healthcare. Additionally,
workplace injuries tend
to be frequent due to
unsafe working conditions
and high levels of worker
fatigue.
Whose Right?
Thesis
In Port-au-Prince
slums such as Cite
Soleil originally were
designated as laborer
housing but quickly
ballooned with high
numbers of rural migrants
seeking employment and
displaced persons who
had lost their homes in
extreme weather events

Haiti
Historical Context
The complex dynamics affecting today’s Haiti cannot be understood
without knowledge of its dense and often tragic history. Too often, when
“Haitiappearsinthemedia,itregisterslargelyasaplaceofdisaster,poverty,
suffering, populated by desperate people trying to escape” (Dubois 3).
We are repeatedly reminded of how Haiti is the poorest nation in the
Western Hemisphere. However, what is typically neglected is the fact
that“the true causes of Haiti’s poverty and instability are not mysterious,
and they have nothing to do with any inherent shortcomings on the
part of the Haitians themselves. Rather, Haiti’s present is the product of
its history; of the nation’s founding by enslaved people who overthrew
their masters and freed themselves; of the hostility that this revolution
generated among the colonial powers surrounding the country; and the
intense struggle within Haiti itself to define that freedom and realize its
promise”(Dubois 4).
Haiti is often described as a “failed state.” In fact, though, Haiti’s state
has been quite successful at doing what it was set up to do: preserve
power for a small group. The constitutional structures established in
the 19th century made it very difficult to vote the country’s leaders out
of office, leaving insurrection as the only means of effecting political
change. Haiti’s twentieth-century laws have grown more liberal, but its
government still changes hands primarily through extraconstitutional,
and often violent, means. And despite powerful wave of popular
participation in the past decades, the country’s political structures
remain largely unaccountable and impermeable to the demands of the
majority of Haitians (Dubois 7).
Even more significant is that“when the French finally granted recognition
to Haiti, more than two decades after its founding, they took a kind of
revenge, insisting that the new nation pay an indemnity of 150 million
francs (roughly $3 billion in today’s currency) to compensate the
slaveholders for their losses” (Dubois 7). In order to pay the indemnity,
the Haitian government had to borrow large sums of money from French
banks and the ensuing “cycle of debt” saw the Haitian government
committing at least half and as much as 80 percent of their annual budget
to paying France for over a century.
Synthesis
No one else in the
world had ever
“paid as dearly
for the right to say,
while stomping
their foot on the
ground: ‘This is
mine, and I can
do with it what I
want!’” (Dubois 11).
In August of 1791, slaves
in the north of the colony
launched the largest slave
revolt in history. They set
the cane fields on fire, killed
their masters, and smashed
all the instruments used
to process the sugarcane.
They took over the northern
plantations, and built
an army and political
movement. Within two years,
they had secured freedom for
all of the slaves in the colony.

Roots
International Human Rights Law is a phenomenon associated with “the
rise of the liberal democratic State”(Viljoen 1). While human rights have
a strong foundation in the moral philosophies and religions of the world,
human rights law was created to help protect the rights of “numerical
minorities, the vulnerable and the powerless”from majoritarianism often
present in State governments and society (Viljoen 1). Modern human
rights activism is described as the struggle to narrow the gap between
human rights law and existing human rights. Human rights law can trace
its roots to the Magna Carta (13th century England), the 1776 American
Declaration of Independence and the 1789 French Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen. Traditional human rights struggles typically
center on the rhetoric associated with the French Revolution:
1. Liberté (freedoms,“civil and political”or“first
generation”rights),

2. Egalité (equality,“socio-economic”or“second
generation”rights), and
3. Fraternité (solidarity,“collective”or“third
generation”rights)
Early struggles for human rights typically focused on first-generation
rights, and efforts aimed at obtaining freedom from oppressive
authoritarian government regimes. As the role of the state changed
over time, the need for second generation rights became more clearly
articulated. Despite this, many western states resisted acknowledging
citizens second generation rights and labeled the notion of equality as
socialist. In modern times, third generation rights have become more
important as the global community attempts to address issues relating
to healthy environment, self-determination and economic development.
History of International Human Rights Law
Background

History of Human Rights Law
The first international legal standards were adopted by the ILO (International
Labor Organization) in 1919 as part of the Peace Treaty of Versailles. ILO was
meant to protect workers in the industrializing marketplace. In the wake of
WWII and the atrocities therein, the “core system of human rights promotion
and protection” was established through the UN Charter (adopted 1945) and
a network of treaties (Viljoen 2). The UN Charter established a commission
on Human Rights made up of 54 governmental representatives. “The main
accomplishment of the Commission was the elaboration and near-universal
acceptance of the three major international human rights instruments: The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)” (Viljoen 2). The Commission devised two
mechanisms to hear complaints, the“1235”and the“1503”(public vs private). In
unique situations, special rapporteurs, independent experts or working groups
were dispatched.
In 2006, the General Assembly decided to create a Human Rights Council to
replace the Commission on Human Rights. The council enjoys an elevated
status and members must be elected by an absolute majority of the assembly
(97 countries). Additionally, members may be elected for only two consecutive
terms. While maintaining the original mechanisms of the Commission, the
Council added the Universal Peer Review process. Lastly, the Council has the
power to transform declarations into legally binding agreements if sufficient
consensus can be obtained. Unfortunately, the required level of agreement on
two critical declarations has yet to be met, and the following have NOT been
translated into binding instruments: the Declaration on the Rights of Persons
belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The treaty-based system has been a tool used to address specific issues such
as racial discrimination, sexism, rights of the child, torture and other cruel and
inhumane practices, migrant worker rights, rights for the disabled, etc.
There are a number of regional level actors operating below the United Nations.
Africa (AU), Europe (council of Europe), America (OAS), and the Middle East (OIC)
all have groups with varying levels of activity and effectiveness. It is interesting
to note that the Asia-Pacific region of the world has no human rights body and
its formation seems unlikely.
Background
Citations: International Human Rights Law: A Short History

The Right to Adequate Housing
The right to Adequate Housing is recognized by international human rights law as part of everyone’s right
to an adequate standard of living. Despite this, over a billion people across the globe do not have access to
adequate housing. The UN Habitat is working to help rectify this situation. The United Nations Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defines the right to Adequate Housing in terms of three key“freedoms”
and four key“entitlements”.
The right to adequate housing contains freedoms. These freedoms include:
• Protection against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction and demolition of
one’s home;
• The right to be free from arbitrary interference with one’s home, privacy and family; and
• The right to choose one’s residence, to determine where to live and to freedom
of movement.
The right to adequate housing contains entitlements. These entitlements include:
• Security of tenure;
• Housing, land and property restitution;
• Equal and non-discriminatory access to adequate housing;
• Participation in housing-related decision-making at the national and community levels.
Within these guidelines, adequate housing is defined as “more than four walls and a roof… For housing to be
adequate, it must, at a minimum, meet the following criteria”(3):
1. Security of Tenure
2. Availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure
3. Affordability
4. Habitability
5. Accessibility
6. Location
7. Cultural adequacy
With over “2 million people in the world… forcibly evicted every year” protecting people’s rights to tenure
is an especially important issue (4). Additionally, the fact that “forced evictions tend to be violent and
disproportionately affect the poor, who often suffer further human rights violations as a result” illustrating
the link between housing and human rights becomes becomes vital (5). It is the stance of the UN that“human
rights are interdependent, indivisible and interrelated”(9). As such, protecting the right to adequate housing
is not just a housing issue but a much broader issue relating to global human rights. They are careful to point
out however, that the right to adequate housing does NOT require the state to build housing for everyone,
it does NOT prohibit development projects which displace people, and is NOT the same as right the right to
land or property. Instead, the right to adequate housing is more centered on “ensuring access to adequate
services” (8). Its aim is to reduce homelessness, prohibit forced evictions, address discrimination, ensure
security of tenure, guarantee quality of housing and focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Background

With regard to vulnerable and marginalized groups, the right to adequate housing takes into special consideration
the plight of the following groups:
1. Women
2. Children
3. Slum-dwellers
4. Homeless persons
5. Persons with disabilities
6. Displaced persons and migrants; and
7. Indigenous peoples
The UN outlines three obligations it places on States to uphold the principles of the right to adequate housing:
1. The obligation to respect (citizen’s rights)
2. The obligation to protect (citizen’s from third parties ie. landlords & developers)
3. The obligation to fulfill (legislation to support rights to adequate housing for all)
Lastly, this piece looks at monitoring of States and accountability. There are a number of ways in which the UN
looks to support States in their mission to attain the right to adequate housing for all their citizens. Mechanisms
include:
1. Administrative, policy and political mechanisms
2. Judicial mechanisms
3. Legal aid
4. Commissions
5. Special Rapporteurs
6. United Nations treaty bodies
Background
Source: UNHABITAT. The Right to Adequate Housing

Background
History
On January 1st, 1804 “after 13 years of revolutionary activity,” the French were
officially removed from the island of Hispaniola and Haitian independence was
declared (Corbett 23). Haiti’s Independence Day marked the formation of the
second republic in the America’s, and the only one controlled by peoples of
African descent. Additionally, the successful overthrow of Haiti’s colonial powers
marked the single successful slave revolution in the history of the modern
world. “The events in Saint-Domingue/Haiti constitute an integral—though
often overlooked—part of the history of that larger sphere. These multi-faceted
revolutions combined to alter the way individuals and groups saw themselves and
their place in the world”(Knight 1). Yet, this great feat did not come easily; Haiti’s
brave revolutionaries had to fight a bitter struggle “as savage as any conflict one
can read of in human history” (Corbett 22). Undoubtedly, the Haitian revolution
is one the greatest moments of human achievement and exemplifies a true to life
“David and Goliath”story.
A little more than two hundred years ago, the place that we now know as Haiti – then
the French colony of Saint-Domingue – was perhaps the most profitable bit of land in
the world. It was full of thriving sugar plantations, with slaves – who made up the nine-
tenths of the colony’s population – planting and cutting cane and operating the mills
and boiling houses that produced sugar crystals coveted by European consumers. The
plantation system was immensely lucrative, creating enormous fortunes in France. It
was also brutally destructive. The plantations consumed the landscape: observers at the
time already noted that alarmingly large areas of the forests had been chopped down
for construction and for export of precious woods to Europe. And they consumed the
lives of the colony’s slaves at a murderous rate. Over the course of the colony’s history, as
many as a million slaves were brought from Africa to Saint-Domingue, but the work was
so harsh that even with a constant stream of imports, the slave population constantly
declined. Few children were born, and those that were often died young. By the late
1700s, the colony had about half a million slaves altogether. It was out of this brutal
world that Haiti was born (Dubois 4).
This Hispaniolan
Trogon is the
National Bird of
Haiti. Currently, it
is threatened by
habitat loss.
In Haiti, the soil is
severely depleted;
generations
of intensive
agriculture and
deforestation have
taken their toll
(Dubois 10).

In Saint-Domingue, there
were constant slave
rebellions. The slaves never
willing submitted to their
status and never quit
fighting it. The slave owners,
both white and people of
color, feared the slaves and
knew that the incredible
concentration of slaves (the
slaves outnumbered the
free people 10-1) required
exceptional control. This, in
part, accounts for the special
harshness and cruelty of
slavery in Saint-Domingue.
The owners tried to keep
slaves of the same tribes
apart; they forbade any
meetings of slaves at all;
they tied slaves rigorously
to their own plantations,
brutally punished the
slightest manifestation
of non-cooperation and
employed huge teams of
harsh overseers.
Background
History
“TheFrenchcolonyofSaint-Dominguein1789representedtheepitomeofthe
successful exploitation slave society in the tropical American world” (Knight
202). Haiti was “the envy of every empire, it supplied about 66 percent of
all French tropical produce and accounted for approximately 33 percent of
all French foreign trade” (Knight 202). In addition, Haiti produced over two-
fifths of the world’s sugar, and over half of the world’s coffee (Knight 4). Haiti’s
demographics consisted of approximately 25,000 whites, and over 500,000
workers, all of African descent. “These demographic proportions would have
been familiar to Jamaica, Barbados, or Cuba during the acme of their slave
plantation regimes”(Knight 4). This favorable balance of population is one of
the reasons why revolution was indeed feasible on the island.
In addition to great numbers, Haitian slaves shared a mutual deep rooted
hatred of their “masters.” It has been documented that slaves would “receive
the whip with more certainty and regularity than they received their food”
(James 12). Additionally, the conditions on the plantations were so oppressive
that for slaves“suicide was a common habit, and such was their disregard for
life that they often killed themselves, not for personal reasons, but in order to
spite their owner”(James 15). Also, due to the prevalent Voodoo culture and
clerical skills of many individuals, slaves frequently poisoned their masters,
their family and other living property of their masters. Slaves were also known
to sing condemning songs about the white race:
Eh! Eh! Bomba! Heu! Heu!
Canga, bafio te!
Canga, Moune de le!
Canga, do ki la!
Canga, li!
This song, which was linked to the Voodoo cults, translates to: “We swear
to destroy the whites and all that they possess; let us die rather than fail to
keep this vow”(James 18). This hatred for the white race by the slaves along
with the complex social system in place within the country led to increased
tensions.

The Revolution
History
Haitians still maintain a great
deal of pride in their feat of
independence. Independence
Day, which falls on New
Years, is a recognized holiday.
Haitian families celebrate
by gathering, and preparing
traditional dishes, most
notably squash soup or
soup joumou. The soup is
supposed to bring individuals
good luck in the upcoming
year, also, it acts to purify
and cleanse the body. They
also eat oranges at midnight.
The numbers of seeds found
inside the fruit indicate how
successful one will be in
the New Year. In addition,
Haitian families will wear
yellow to sleep on New Years
Eve; they will buy their kids
new clothing, and make a
homemade liquor to eat with
cake. The homemade pink
liqueur is made from boiled
syrup and grenadine essence
and alcohol. The holiday
is very important since the
revolution was so unique and
hard fought. Additionally,
Haiti has deteriorated to a
state of severe economic
turmoil since the 19th
century, and most Haitian’s
do not have much else to feel
nationalistic about. Despite
this, the spirit of Toussaint
is seen in all of the Haitian
people especially those
thriving in the United States,
and many Haitian’s arguably
still maintain special qualities
due to the unique background
of their country’s culture.
Prelude to the Revolution: 1760 to 1789
The Maroons“Neg Mawon”
There was a large group of run-away slaves who retreated deep into the
mountains of Saint-Domingue. They lived in small villages where they
did subsistence farming and kept alive African ways, developing African
architecture, social relations, religion and customs. They were bitterly anti-
slavery, but alone, were not willing to fight the fight for freedom. They
did supplement their subsistence farming with occasional raids on local
plantations, and maintained defense systems to resist planter forays to
capture and re-enslave them.
It is hard to estimate their numbers, but most scholars believe there were
tens of thousands of them prior to the Revolution of 1791. Maroons were
often in contact with rebellious slaves and two of the leading generals of
the early slave revolution were Maroon leaders.
The Revolution in France, 1789
Prior to the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, France was ruled by a
king. King Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were only two in a long
line of greedy monarchs who cared little about their people. Nonetheless,
a movement for a general concept of human rights, universal citizenship
and participation in government had developed among the intellectuals
and was taking root among the common people. This movement finally
broke into full revolution in 1789 and ordinary citizens, for the first time in
France’s history, had the rights of citizenship.
People in France were divided into two camps, the red cockades, those in
favor of the revolution and the white cockades, those loyal to the system of
monarchy. (This had to do with the color of the hats they wore.) This whole
social upheaval had a necessary impact on Saint-Domingue, and people
had to begin to choose up sides (Corbett).

“The Haitian Revolution
represents the most
thorough case study of
revolutionary change
anywhere in the history
of the modern world”
(Knight 1). A slave
nation of 500,000
people produced an
army which defeated
over 44,000 superiorly
trained and armed
French troops over
the course of thirteen
years. The French would
like to have people
believe that their loss
was attributed to their
problems in Europe, but
the facts show that poor
tactical decisions and
intelligent leadership on
the side of the Haitians
proved to be France’s
downfall. In the end,
Haiti established itself
as the first free black
democratic republic in
the Americas. As a result,
Haiti’s model provided
inspiration for enslaved
minds everywhere,
and inspired fear in the
heart of powerful whites
everywhere.
The Revolution
History
“The whites were subdivided into grande blancs and petite blancs; the
free persons of color into mulattos and blacks; and the slaves into Creoles
(or locally born) and bozales (or imported individuals)” (knight 203). The
two classes of whites were legally divided by their wealth and property
(plantation)ownership. Thegrandeblancsoftenreferredtoas“planters”were
the wealthy whites who owned slaves. The grand blancs were“revolutionary
minded and defiant of the laws of France. Meanwhile, the petit blancs were
poorer whites who remained more loyal to France. “The free people of color
were often quite wealthy, certainly usually more wealthy than the petit
blancs (thus accounting for the distinct hatred of the free persons of color on
the part of the petit blancs), and often even more wealthy than the planters.
The free persons of color could own plantations and owned a large portion
of the slaves”(Corbett 2). Ironically, the free“persons of color”were favored
by the grande blancs, and were spared the severe hatred directed towards
their white counterparts by their slaves. Finally,“big whites and small whites
did not exhaust the white population on San Domingo. Over them both
was the bureaucracy, composed entirely of Frenchmen from France, who
governed the island” (James 34). Tensions between these various factions
based on their various opinions on colonial rule are a principal cause for the
start of the Haitian revolution.
The tensions in Saint Domingue mounted at the outbreak of the French
revolution. France, which “enforced a system called the exclusif… required
that San Domingue sold 100 percent of her exports to France alone, and
purchased 100 percent of her imports from France alone” (Corbett 4). Both
free persons of color and the grande blancs“chafed under the oppression of
France’s exclusif” (Corbett 4). As a result, there mounted an independence
movement, in which whites and free persons of color were allied.
Consequently, the people of Saint Domingue allied themselves either with
the French bureaucracy or the revolutionaries bringing the local population
to the brink of civil war. “Both white groups armed their slaves and prepared
for war in the name of the metropolitan Revolution and presumably against
the monarch” (Knight 206). Sensing the tension of the country the slaves
chose this time as an opportune point in which to carry out a rebellion.
On the night of August 21st, 1791 led by generals named in a prophetic
Voodoo ceremony, slaves rioted and burned“the whole northern plain
surrounding Cape Francois”(Corbett 8).

In response to the slaves uprising,“the Colonial Assembly recognized the Paris decree of May,”which recognized
all free people of color as citizens thus pitting all free individuals against the black slaves and maroons (Corbett 8).
Realizing the possible devastating effects of such a policy, the General Assembly revoked the decree 3 days later and
sent 6,000 troops to diffuse the tensions. Realizing again that it had made a bad policy choice, France reinstated the
blacks’citizenship and sent Felicite Leger Sonthonax to lead French troops to ensure successful implementation of this
policy. Shortly thereafter, it seemed that Sonthonax had achieved his goals of containing“the slave rebellion, defeating
the primary white resistance, and holding the colony for France” (Corbett 11). “Then came the devastating month of
February, 1793”(Corbett 11). France declared war on Britain; as a result Sonthonax’s supply line was cut off by the vast
English navy. In addition, “Louis XVI was guillotined and France became a republic without a king” (Corbett 11). With
tensions rising and the threat of a British invasion Sonthonax was forced to make a hard decision, whether or not to free
slaves to aid in a military effort.
In what proved to be a catastrophic tactical decision, Sonthonax chose to free 15,000 slaves in order to put
down a traitor general’s insurrection within his own army. As a result, Sonthonax aggravated whites and free blacks
who were opposed to freeing slaves. In a final attempt to ensure French control of the colony, Sonthonax freed all the
slaves on the island in an attempt to draw support away from the Spanish slave army led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, and
the British army. The British army attacked on September 19th, 1793, and by June of the next year had captured Port-au-
Prince (Corbett 13). But, it was May of that year that marked the turning point in the war, when Toussaint and his forces
rejoined with the French.
There are several arguments/factors attempting to explain why Toussaint switched back to the French side.
Some believe that Sonthonax’s freeing of the slaves motivated him, but more likely is the fact that Toussaint was having
trouble with the Spanish, in addition to that fact that the Spanish were loosing strength in Europe andToussaint realized
he was fighting for a losing side. Toussaint’s army, famous for their guerrilla tactics and often having to fight without
food (James 148), “attacked both Jean-Francois and Biassou, his former associates and defeated them” (Corbett 14).
Meanwhile, the Spanish were defeated by the French in Europe and signed a peace treaty on July 22, 1795. At this
point, Toussaint was promoted to brigadier general in the French army. Toussaint further proved his military prowess
by putting down two jealous deserting generals Rigaud and Vilatte and earning the rank of lieutenant governor. Then,
“on August 27th, 1797 Sonthonax sailed for France, never to return”(Corbett 15). Toussaint was left as governor general
and commander in chief of San Domingue.
“In early 1798Toussaint began a massive campaign against the British”(Corbett 16). At the same time,Toussaint
outwitted French special agent Theodore Hedouville who was sent to undermine Toussaint’s rule. French powers were
concerned that Toussaint had attained too much power, unfortunately for them; they were unable to remove him.
Toussaint was able to repel the British, and on June 16th, 1799 he began the war which would lead to his complete
conquest.
In what is commonly known asThe War of Knives,Toussaint defeated Rigaud’s revitalized forces in a nine month
affair that proved to be the bloodiest period of the revolution. “By August, 1800Toussaint was ruler of all San Domingue,”
and no foreign powers remained in his country (Corbett 18). After achieving complete dominance, Toussaint turned
towards Spanish controlled Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). “Spanish Captain-General Don Joaquin Garcia y
Moreno was unwilling to turn over command to black Haitians”(Corbett 19). Toussaint met limited resistance as he took
Santo Domingo City by force on January 26th, 1801. Thereafter, Toussaint“consolidated his power and emerged as the
governor-general of Hispaniola” (Corbett 19). Despite the ensuing constitution and momentary peace, more struggle
awaited Toussaint.
In July of 1801, Toussaint published and promulgated a constitution for his country. In the constitution
Toussaint declared himself governor-general for life, and that all men 14-55 were to enlist in the state militia (Corbett
19). Napoleon took offense to this since the constitution was instated without“prior approval from France and the First
Consul”(Corbett 19). Meanwhile, France and Britain signed a peace treaty on October 1st, 1801 and Napoleon began to
implement his plan to take back his jewel of the Caribbean.
The Revolution
History

“Once committed, Napoleon sent a well-outfitted troop of 12,000 soldiers under the leadership of his brother-
in-law, General Charles Laclerc. In Laclerc’s invasion force Toussaint was going to have to deal with many old enemies
including Alexander Petion and Andre Rigaud” (Corbett 20). “On February 2nd, 1802 Laclerc’s forces arrived in the bay
of Cap Francois, the city governed and defended by Henri Christophe, one of Toussaint’s most important generals, and
later on Haiti’s second president and first and only king”(Corbett 20). Christophe threatened that if Laclerc’s forces left
his ship he would burn the city to the ground. Christophe was forced to burn the city as Laclerc’s forces advanced off
of the ships, and the black army retreated to the interior of the island. “Laclerc’s forces took most of the coastal towns,
though Haitians burned many of them before they retreated” (Corbett 20). By May 1st, all of Toussaint’s forces had
surrendered. Toussaint was then tricked into meeting with French officials, arrested and thrown into jail in France.
Toussaint died on April 7th, 1803 in his jail cell. Despite this, Toussaint’s martyrdom proved to be the spark needed for
the Haitian people to expel the French.
“The dishonorable treatment of the aging Toussaint was not only a moral outrage, but a practical error of
irreversible scope” (Corbett 21). The Haitians “realized the French must be defeated once and for all” (Corbett 21). A
second error made by Laclerc was to begin a black disarmament campaign. The campaign was grossly unsuccessful
and simply revealed to Haitian’s that the French were not their allies. As conditions further deteriorated, Christophe,
who had been working for the French along with a few other generals, conspired with rebel leaders. On November
2nd, 1802 the rebel leaders elected general Dessalines as rebel commander-in-chief at the Arcahaye conference. On
the same day Laclerc died of yellow fever. Laclerc’s successor was General Rochambeau. To aid Rochambeau Napoleon
sent 10,000 more troops to reinforce the army. Meanwhile, most of the Maroons on the island who had stayed out of the
conflict up until this point began joining the rebel ranks in order to drive the French from the island. The final conflict
was mounting.
The battles between Dessaline’s and Rochambeau’s forces resulted in countless“atrocities.” Rochambeau’s forces
looked as if they were going to be able to quell the rebellion, but on May 18th, 1803 Britain declared war on France as
Europe once again was thrust into war. “By the end of October the French were reduced to holding only Le Cap and
were besieged and in danger of starvation. Finally, on November 19th, 1803 Rochambeau begged for a 10 day truce to
allow the evacuation of Le Cap, thus giving Haiti to the Haitians” (Corbett 22). Jean-Jacques Dessalines was made the
official governor general on January 1st 1804, the day of Haitian independence.
The sound defeat was a great shock to the world. Not only did it have profound effects on the French, but
throughout Europe and the Americas. “The revolution deeply affected the psychology of the whites throughout the
Atlantic world” (Knight 8). “The French of course, regretted the loss of an enormously rich colony. The British feared
the impact of the Haitian Revolution on Jamaica and her other slave colonies. The U.S. worried about the impact of
the servile revolution on the south of its own nation. Spain had lost her colony of Santo Domingo, next door to San
Domingue, and feared the spread of her influence to Puerto Rico and Cuba”(Corbett 24). “Haiti cast an inevitable shadow
over all slave societies. Antislavery movements grew stronger and bolder, especially in Great Britain, and the colonial
slaves themselves became increasingly more restless” (Knight 8). Yet, the most important impact was that whites lost
confidence that they could maintain the slave system indefinitely, and“in 1808, the British abolished their transatlantic
slave trade, and they dismantled the slave system…”later on (Knight 8).
The history of Haiti has often been lost in modern textbooks. The main reason for this was “propaganda that
later passed for history, according to which tropical climate and disease, not black heroism, destroyed their (French)
armies (Genovese 87). Meanwhile, it is clear to see that it was a“brilliant play[ing] of one ruling class against the other”
which led to the rebel’s success (Genovese 86). Unfortunately for Haiti, after the war “Haiti slipped into a system of
peasant proprietorship and self sufficiency… and the dream of a modern black state drowned in the tragic hunger of an
ex-slave population for a piece of land and a chance to live in old ways or ways perceived as old”(Genovese 89). Thus it
was the“rise of the world market, manifested politically in the struggle for world power among the stronger European
nations, decisively undermined the restorationist threat of peasant and slave movements”(Genovese 90-91). It was this
disastrous fact which ultimately led to Haiti’s now brutal social conditions, and military rule.
The Revolution
History

Haitian Political Chronology 1697-2007
History
TheaftershocksoftheHaitianrevolutionreverberatethroughoutthecountry’s
history. “The country emerged in a world still dominated by slavery, and the
nations that surrounded it saw its existence as a serious threat... Haiti’s political
isolation and the constant threats directed at it weighed heavily on its early
leaders... [who] poured money into building fortifications and maintaining a
large army... from the start, civilian concerns were often subordinated to the
army’s needs (Dubois 5).
The first rulers of independent Haiti“saw the reconstruction of its plantations
as the only viable economic course of action... But the former slaves... took
over the land... creating small farms where they raised livestock and grew
crops to feed themselves and sell in local markets” (Dubois 5). While the
people practiced self-determination, the ruling elite took control of the ports
and the export trade. Eventually,“they took control of the state, heavily taxing
the goods produced by the small-scale farmers and thereby reinforcing the
economic divisions between the haves and the havenots”(Dubois 6).
Over time - often convinced that the masses were simply not ready to
participate in political life - the Haitian governing elites crafted state
institutions that excluded most Haitians from formal political involvement...
The majority of Haitians speak Kreyol, a language born of the encounter
between French and various African languages in the eighteenth century.
Until 1987, however, the only official language of the government was
French... [So], for almost all of Haiti’s history, most of its population has
literally been unable to read the laws under which they have been governed
(Dubois 7).
“In 1915, the marines landed in Haiti, ostensibly to reestablish political order
after a bloody coup. They stayed for twenty years” (Dubois 8). Numerous
occupations by the United States during thet 20th Century disguised as
programs to help “improve and democratize Haiti’s political institutions”
helped to erode Haiti’s pride and independence.
As more and more U.S. agricultural companies entered Haiti, they deprived
peasantsoftheirland. Theresultwasthat,forthefirsttimeinitshistory,large
numbers of Haitians left the country, looking for work in nearby Caribbean
islands and beyond. Others moved to the capital of Port-au-Prince, which
the United States had made into Haiti’s center of trade at the expense of the
regional ports. In the decades that followed, the capital’s growth continued,
uncontrolled and ultimately disastrous, while the countryside suffered
increasing immiseration”(Dubois 9).
True political freedom is as
limited in Haiti as it is anywhere
on the planet. It is limited by
the fragility of an economy that
remains profoundly vulnerable
to international pressure. It is
limited by a rigid and highly
polarized social structure that
isolates a very small and very
concentrated elite from the
rest of the population. It is
also limited by a whole range
of strategic and institutional
factors: the persistence of
neo-imperial intervention, of
elite and foreign control over
the military or paramilitary
security forces, of elite and
foreign manipulation of the
media, of the judiciary, of non-
governmental organizations, of
the educational and religious
establishments, of the electoral
and political systems, and so
on. Taken together these things
make it extremely difficult
to sustain any far-reaching
challenge to the status quo
(Hallward xxiii).

Francois Duvalier
‘Papa Doc’
With the paramilitary
force known as the
Tontons Macoutes,
Duvalier established
the most violently
repressive regime in
the island’s history,
thanks in part to the
support of the United
States (Hallward xxiii).
Peter Hallward
Hitory
1697 The Treaty of Ryswick divides the island of
Hispaniola into Saint-Domingue (French)
and Santo-Domingo (Spanish).
Aug. 1791 A slave uprising begins in northern Saint-Domingue.
Feb. 1794 Abolition of French colonial slavery.
Jan. 1, Saint-Domingue is renamed Haiti, and declares
1804 itself independent of France
Oct. 1806 Dessalines is assassinated; civil war then divides
Haiti between a monarchy in the north (ruled by
Henri Christophe) and a republic in the south (led
by Alexandre Petior).
1818-43 Pierre Boyer re-unifies Haiti.
1825 France recognizes Haitian independence in
exchange for the payment of 150 million francs
(later reduced to 90 million) as compensation for
lost property.
1915-34 The United States invades and occupies Haiti.
1946-50 Dumarsais Estime is president.
Sept. 1957 Francois Duvalier (‘Papa Doc’) becomes president.
June 1964 ‘Papa Doc’ declares himself president for life.
April 1971 Francois Duvalier dies and is suceeded by his son
Jean-Claude (‘Baby Doc’).
Feb. 1986 Jean-Claude Duvalier is pushed out of Haiti by a
popular uprising; Gen. Henry Namphy takes power.
Dec. 16 Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected with 67% of
1990 the vote.

History
Jan. 6 Macoute leader Roger Lafontant attempts a pre-
1991 emptive coup d’etat against Aristide, but is
overwhelmed my popular resistance.
Feb. 1991 Inauguration of Aristide’s first administration; his
Prime Minister is Rene Preval.
Sept. 30 Gen. Raoul Cedras and police chief Michel
1991 Francois overthrow Aristide, who goes into exile
first in Venezuela and then in the US; over the next
few years several thosands of Aristide’s
supporters are killed.
July 1993 The Governors Island Agreement brokered by UN
and OAS officials between Cedras and Aristide is
signed (and later ignored by Cedras).
Summer The paramilitary death squad FRAPH is formed, led
1993 by Toto Constant and Jodel Chamblain.
Sept. 1993 Lavalas activist Antoine Izmery is assassinated.
April 1994 FRAPH and Haitian army troops kill dozens of people
in the Gonaives slum of Raboteau.
Sept. 1994 US soldier occupy Haiti for the second time.
Oct. 1994 Aristide returns from exile, with businessman Smarck
Michel as his Prime Minister.
Early 1995 Aristide disbands Haiti’s armed forces (FAdH).
June-Sept. Legislative elections are won by members of the
1995 Platforme Politique Lavalas; Evans Paul is heavily
defeated by Manno Charlemagne in the Port-
au-Prince mayoral election.
Oct. 1995 Prime Minister Smarck Michel resigns.
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide
First presidential
candidate of the
anti-Duvalierist
movement
Lavalas - a Kreyol
word meaning
“avalanche” or
“flood” as well as
“the mass of the
people” or “everyone
together” (Hallward
xxiv).

Rene Preval
Haitian politician and
agronomist who twice
served as president of
the Republic of Haiti.
Peter Hallward
Hitory
Dec. 1995 Rene Preval is elected with 88% of the vote.
Feb. 1996 Inauguration of Preval’s first administration, with
the OPL’s Rosny Smarth as his Prime Miniester
Late Formation of Fanmi Lavalas political organization,
1996 led by Aristide, in opposition to the ex-Lavalas
faction the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte (OPL),
led by Gerard Pierre-Charles.
April 1997 Fanmi Lavalas wins several seats in senate
elections; the results are not accepted by the OPL,
and parliamentary deadlock ensues.
June 1997 Prime Minister Rosny Smarth resigns.
Jan. 1999 Parliamentary terms expire.
Oct. 1999 Police Chief Jean Lamy is assassinated, and under
pressure from Danny Toussaint, Preval’s security
minister Bob Manuel flees into exile.
April 2000 Journalist Jean Dominique is assassinated.
May 2000 Legislative and local elections: Fanmi Lavalas wins
landslide victories at all levels of government;
opponents of Fanmi Lavalas form a US-backed
coalition called the Convergence Democratique.
June 2000 The OAS disputes the validity of the vote-counting
method used in the senate elections.
Oct. 2000 PNH commanders Guy Phillipe, Jackie Nau and
Gilbert Dragon flee into exile after being
implicated in plans for a coup.
Nov. 2000 Aristide is re-elected president with 92% of the vote.

History
Feb. 2001 Inauguration of Aristide’s second administration,
with Jean-Marie Cherestal as his Prime Minister;
simultaneous inauguration of a parallel
government led by the Convergence
Democratique’s Gerard Gourgue.
July 2001 The first of many commando raids on police
stations and other government facilities by ex-
soldiers based in the Dominican Republic and led
by Guy Philippe and Ravix Remissainthe (later
known as the FLRN)
Dec. 2001 Ex-soldiers attack the presidential palace,
provoking popular reprisals against the offices of
parties belonging to the Convergence
Democratique.
Jan. 2002 Prime Minister Cherestal resigns.
Sept. 2002 OAS adopts resolution 822.
“Support for Strengthening Democracy in Haiti”
Dec. 2002 The group 184 (led by Andy Apaid, supported by
the IRI) is formed at a meeting of Aristide’s
opponents in the Dominican Republic.
April 2003 Aristide asks France to repay the money it extorted
from Haiti as compensation for lost colonial
property in the nineteenth century.
July 2003 Inter-American Development Bank promises to
disburse frozen loans and aid to Haiti
Sept. 2003 Amiot ‘Cubain’ Metayer is assassinated in
Gonaives; Buteur Metayer and Jean Tatoune
take over Cubain’s gang and turn it against
Aristide.

Andy Apaid
Businessman of Lebanese origin,
was instrumental in the Coup
which saw Aristide exiled in 2004
Ever since popular
president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was violently
overthrown in 2004, Haiti
has been policed largely
by foreign troops under
U.N. command. Haiti’s
proud independence
has been eroded, too,
by thousands of foreign
organizations that have
flocked to the country
over the yeras with
project for improvement
and reform... In the
cities, the last decades
have seen an increase in
violent crime, including
drug trafficking and
kidnapping (Dubois 10).

Peter Hallward
Hitory
Dec. 2003 Anti-government students clash with government
supporters at the State University in Port-au-Prince.
Jan. 1 Haiti celebrates the bicentenary of its
2004 independence from France.
Feb. 2004 Full-scale insurgency begins in Gonaives, led by
Jean Tatoune, Buteur Metayer and Winter Etienne;
they are soon joined by Guy Philippe, Jodel
Chamblain and FLRN troops based in the D.R.
Feb. 2004 Chamblain overruns Cap Haitien
Feb. 2004 Aristide is forced onto a US jet and flown to the
Central African Republic.
March 2004 US troops occupy Haiti for the third time, and an
interim government is formed, with Gerard Latortue
as Prime Minister; hundreds of Aristide supporters
are killed.
June 2004 The US-led occupation force is replaced by a UN
stabilization mission (MINUSTAH).
Sept. 2004 A long campaign of violence against Lavalas
supporters in Port-au-Prince begins, notably in Bel
Air and Cite Soleil.
July 2005 A major UN assault on Cite Soleil kills at least twenty
people, including militant leader Dred Wilme.
Feb. 2006 Preval wins delayed presidential elections in the first
round, with 51% of the vote
Dec 2006 UN incursions into Cite Soleil leaves around a
dozen residents dead.
2007 UN military incursions into Cite Soleil continue...
Cite Soleil
Largest slum in Haiti with
200,000 to 300,000 people
living within a three square
mile area.
One of the nation’s poorest,
roughest and most dangerous
areas.
Most residents are children or
young adults.
Few live past the age of
fifty – dying from disease or
violence.
Area is prone to frequent
flooding that turns the
unpaved streets to sludge of
mud mixed with sewerage.
Shacks average nine residents
in each, and some are so small
that inhabitants must sleep in
shifts.
Most residents live on less
than a $1 per day, with more
than half living on less than
$.44 per day.
The illiteracy rate is reported
to be as high as 87%.

January 12th, 2010
The Earthquake
In the wake of the January 12, 2010, earthquake, Haiti’s history
of unrelenting struggle for justice is its greatest resource. This
history... is what makes Haiti mighty: mighty without material
wealth,withoutnaturalresources,withoutarableland,without
arms (Farmer xii).
Amidst the rubble of the
houses, buildings, and
schools, and in front of the
once grand National Palace,
stands Neg Mawon - the
symbol of Haiti. Neg Mawon
at once embodies the
marooned man, the runaway
slave, and the free man. He
symbolizes the complex
history of the Haitian people:
stolen from Africa, marooned
on an island and liberated
through a brave and radical
revolution. Shackles broken,
machete in hand, the free
man does not hide; rather
he blows a conch to gather
others to fight for the
freedom and dignity of all
people. For the self-evident
truth - that all men are
created equal. Neg Mawon
is the indefatigable spirit
of Haiti’s people, a people
profoundly and proudly
woven to their history
(Farmer xii).
Already suffering from systemic problems and widespread poverty, the
island nation of Haiti was rocked by a level 7.0 magnitude earthquake which
destroyed countless buildings in Haiti including the National Palace, Port-au-
Prince’s historic cathedral and the headquarters of the U.N.
According to Oxfam, the earthquake is Haiti killed 250,000 people and injured
another 300,000. In terms of fatalities, only the Bangladesh cyclone of 1970
and the Tangshan earthquake of 1976 in China surpassed the Haitian tragedy
(Gros 1).
Key Statistics (from Amnesty International)
• 2.3 million left homeless
• 105,000 houses destroyed; 208,164 houses badly damaged
• 357,785 people (90,415 families) living in 496 camps (Oct. 2012)
• 60,978 individuals have been forcibly evicted from 152 camps
since the earthquake
• 78,175 individuals are currently under threat of eviction – 21 %
of the total number of IDPs currently living in camps.
• 72,038 internally-displaced people in 264 of the 541 camps
did not have on-site access to water and toilets (in June 2012)
• 50% of camps remaining did not have on site access to water
and toilets, affecting more than one internally displaced person
out of six, for a total of 66,546 persons. (June 2012)
Before the earthquake
• 67% of the urban population lived in slums which were the
areas most affected by the earthquake.
• 56% of households live with less than a dollar a day and 77%
with less than 2
• The 10% of richest households in Haiti earned 68% of the total
revenue of all households

Aftershocks
The Earthquake
While“the world spent more than $5.2 billion on the emergency relief effort... Haiti
is not better off... nearly a million people [are] still homeless; political riots fueled
by frustration over the stalled reconstruction; and the worst cholera epidemic is
recent history, caused by the very UN soldiers sent to Haiti to protect its people...
Rubble still chokes much of the city... [and] the legacy of the response has been a
sense of betrayal (Katz 2).
Where did the money go?
Part of the problem is that the international community and non-government
organizations (Haiti has sometimes been called the Republic of NGOs) has
bypassed Haitian non-governmental agencies and the Haitian government itself.
TheCenterforGlobalDevelopmentanalysisofwheretheymoneywentconcluded
that overall less than 10% went to the government of Haiti and less than 1% went
to Haitian organizations and businesses. A full one-third of the humanitarian
funding for Haiti was actually returned to donor countries to reimburse them for
their own civil and military work in the country and the majority of the rest went
to international NGOs and private contractors.
Withhundredsofthousandsofpeoplestilldisplaced,theinternationalcommunity
has built less than 5000 new homes. Despite the fact that crime and murder are
low in Haiti (Haiti had a murder rate of 6.9 of every hundred thousand, while
New Orleans has a rate of 58), huge amounts of money are spent on a UN force
which many Haitians do not want. The annual budget of the United Nations
“peacekeeping” mission, MINUSTAH for 2012-2013 or $644 million would pay
for the construction of more than 58,000 homes at $11,000 per home (Quigley &
Ramanauskas).
For those that have left the camps, little is known about their current status.
According to OCHA, over 250,000 have left the camps due to resettlement
programs, yet there has been no systematic tracking of what has happened to
them. The government’s flagship relocation program, “16/6”, began over a year
ago, meaning the one-year rental subsidies offered to camp residents have
already run out, or will in the next few months. One former resident of the Champ
de Mars camp said that his subsidy will run out next month, and with no steady
employment, he expects to be back on the street soon. If so, he, and others in
similar situations, would likely fall outside of the“official”camp population (CEPR).
Living conditions in the
makeshift camps are
worsening – with severe
lack of access to water,
sanitation and waste
disposal – all of which
have contributed to
the spread of infectious
diseases such as cholera.
Women and girls are
extremely vulnerable to
sexual assault and rape.
As if being exposed to
insecurity, diseases and
hurricanes were not
enough, many people
living in makeshifts
camps are also living
under the constant fear
of being forcibly evicted
(Amnesty International).
A survey by USAID found that housing options are so few that
people have moved back into over 50,000 “red” buildings
which engineers said should be demolished.

Haiti by the Numbers - January 9, 2013
Number of people killed in the earthquake in 2010: over 217,300
Number of people killed by cholera epidemic caused by U.N. troops since
October 19, 2010: over 7,912
Number of cholera cases worldwide in 2010 and 2011: 906,632
Percent of worldwide cholera cases that were in Haiti in those years: 57
Total number of cholera cases in Haiti from 2010-2012: 635,980
Days Since Cholera Was Introduced in Haiti Without an Apology From the U.N.:
813
Percent of the population that lacks access to “improved” drinking water: 42
Funding needed for U.N./CDC/Haitian government 10-year cholera eradication
plan: $2.2 billion
Percent of $2.2 billion which the U.N. pledged to provide: 1
Percent of $2.2 billion that the U.N. has spent on MINUSTAH since the earthquake:
87
Amount disbursed by bilateral and multilateral donors to Haiti from 2010-2012:
$6.43 billion
Percent that went through the Haitian government: 9
Amount the Haitian government has received in budget support over this time:
$302.69 million
Amount the American Red Cross raised for Haiti: $486 million
Amount of budget support to the Haitian government in 2009, the year before
the earthquake: $93.60 million
Amount of budget support to the Haitian government in 2011, the year after
the earthquake: $67.93 million
Number of dollars, out of every $100 spent in humanitarian relief, that went to
the Haitian government: 1
Value of all contracts awarded by USAID since the earthquake: $485.5 million
Percent of contracts that has gone to local Haitian firms: 1.2
Percent of contracts that has gone to firms inside the beltway (DC, Maryland,
Virginia): 67.6
Number of people displaced from their homes by the earthquake: 1.5 million
The Earthquake

Center for Economic and Policy Research
Number of people still in displaced persons camps today: 358,000
Percent that have left camps due to relocation programs by the Haitian
government and international agencies: 25
Share of camp residents facing a constant threat of forced eviction: 1 in 5
Number of transitional shelters built by aid agencies since the earthquake:
110,964
Percent of transitional shelters that went to camp residents: 23
Number of new houses constructed since the earthquake: 5,911
Number of houses marked “red”, meaning they were in need of demolition:
100,178
Number of houses marked “yellow”, meaning they were in need of repairs to
make safe enough to live in: 146,004
Estimated number of people living in houses marked either “yellow” or “red”:
1 million
Number of houses that have actually been repaired: 18,725
Percent growth of the Haitian economy (GDP) in 2012, predicted by the IMF in
April 2011: 8.8
Actual percent growth of the Haitian economy (GDP) in 2012: 2.5
U.N. Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) funding appeal for
2013: $144 million
Percent of last year’s OCHA appeal that was actually funded: 40
Funding committed by the U.S. Government for the Caracol industrial park:
$124 million
Share of U.S. funds earmarked for “reconstruction” that this represents: 1/4th
Cost of building 750 houses near the Caracol park for workers: $20 million
Cost of building 86-100 houses for U.S. Embassy staff: $85 - 100 million
Share of garment factories in Haiti found to be out of compliance with minimum
wage requirements: 21 of 22
Number of garment factories that have lost preferential tariff benefits to the
U.S. because of labor violations: 0
The Earthquake

A Year and A Day
In the Haitian vodou tradition, it is believed by some that the souls of the newly
dead slip into rivers and streams and remain there, under the water, for a year
and a day. Then, lured by ritual prayer and song, the souls emerge from the
water and the spirits are reborn. These reincarnated spirits go on to occupy
trees, and, if you listen closely, you may hear their hushed whispers in the wind.
The spirits can also hover over mountain ranges, or in grottoes, or caves, where
familiar voices echo our own when we call out their names. The year-and-
a-day commemoration is seen, in families that believe in it and practice it,
as a tremendous obligation, an honorable duty, in part because it assures a
transcendental continuity of the kind that has kept us Haitians, no matter where
we live, linked to our ancestors for generations.
By this interpretation of death, one of many in Haiti, more than two hundred
thousand souls went anba dlo—under the water—after the earthquake last
January 12th. Their bodies, however, were elsewhere. Many were never
removed from the rubble of their homes, schools, offices, churches, or beauty
parlors. Many were picked up by earthmovers on roadsides and dumped into
mass graves.
Many were burned, like kindling, in bonfires, for fear that they might infect the
living. “In Haiti, people never really die,” my grandmothers said when I was a
child, which seemed strange, because in Haiti people were always dying. They
died in disasters both natural and man-made. They died from political violence.
They died of infections that would have been easily treated elsewhere. They
even died of chagrin, of broken hearts.
But what I didn’t fully understand was that in Haiti people’s spirits never really
die. This has been proved true in the stories we have seen and read during the
past year, of boundless suffering endured with grace and dignity: mothers have
spent nights standing knee-deep in mud, cradling their babies in their arms,
while rain pounded the tarpaulin above their heads; amputees have learned
to walk, and even dance, on their new prostheses within hours of getting them;
rape victims have created organizations to protect other rape victims; people
have tried, in any way they could, to reclaim a shadow of their past lives.
Commentary

Edwidge Danticat
My grandmothers were also talking about souls, which never really die, even
when the visual and verbal manifestations of their transition—the tombstones
and mausoleums, the elaborate wakes and church services, the desounen
prayers that encourage the body to surrender the spirit, the mourning rituals of
all religions—become a luxury, like so much else in Haiti, like a home, like bread,
like clean water.
In the year since the earthquake, Haiti has lost some thirty-five hundred people
to cholera, an epidemic that is born out of water. The epidemic could potentially
take more lives than the earthquake itself. And with the contagion of cholera
comes a stigma that follows one even in death.
People cannot touch a loved one who has died of cholera. No ritual bath is
possible, no last dressing of the body. There are only more mass graves.
In the emerging lore and reality of cholera, water, this fragile veil between
life and death for so many Haitians, has become a feared poison. Even as
the election stalemate lingers, the rice farmers in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley—the
country’s breadbasket—are refusing to step into the bacteria infected waters of
their paddies, setting the stage for potential food shortages and more possible
death ahead, this time from hunger. In the precarious dance for survival, in
which we long to honor the dead while still harboring the fear of joining them,
will our rivers and streams even be trusted to shelter and then return souls?
A year ago, watching the crumbled buildings and crushed bodies that were
shown around the clock on American television, I thought that I was witnessing
the darkest moment in the history of the country where I was born and where
most of my family members still live. Then I heard one of the survivors say, either
on radio or on television, that during the earthquake it was as if the earth had
become liquid, like water. That’s when I began to imagine them, all these
thousands and thousands of souls, slipping into the country’s rivers and streams,
then waiting out their year and a day before re-emerging and reclaiming their
places among us. And, briefly, I was hopeful.
My hope came not only from the possibility of their and our communal rebirth
but from the extra day that would follow the close of what has certainly been a
terrible year. That extra day guarantees nothing, except that it will lead us into
the following year, and the one after that, and the one after that.
Commentary

Literature
Works Cited
Books
1. Hallward, Peter. “Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment”. 2007.
2. Harvey, David. “Rebel Cities” 2012.
3. LeFebvre, Henri. “Writings on Cities”. 1996.
4. Katz, Jonathan M. “The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and
Left Behind a Disaster”. 2013.
5. Farmer, Paul. “Haiti After the Earthquake”. 2011.
6. Dubois, Laurent. “Haiti: The Aftershocks of History”. 2012.
7. Knight, Franklin W. The Caribbean. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
8. James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins. New York: Random House, 1963.
9. Genovese, Eugene D. From Rebellion to Revolution. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1979.
Articles
10. Poschet, Lena. “Across the River”
11. Sheller , Mimi. “The islanding effect: post-disaster mobility systems and humanitarian
logistics in Haiti”
12. Pence, Josh. “Hope for Haiti”
13. Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick. “A Man-Made Disaster: The Earthquake of January 12,
2010—A Haitian Perspective”
14. Gros, Jean-Germain. “Anatomy of a Haitian Tragedy: When the Fury of Nature Meets
the Debility of the State”
15. Audefroy, Joel F. “Haiti: post-earthquake lessons learned from traditional
construction”
16. Danticat, Edwidge. The Haiti earthquake, a year later : The New Yorker
17. Class Readings
18. Knight, Franklin W. “The Haitian Revolution.” The American Historical Review Vol. 105,
Issue 1. <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/105.1/ah000103.html>
19. Corbett, Bob. “The Haitian Revolution.” Stretch Magazine 1991.

1. United Nations
i. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/
ii. http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/
iii. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/HumanRightsBodies.aspx
iv. http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/chronicle/home/archive/issues2009/
wemustdisarm/internationalhumanrightslawashorthistory
v. Right to Adequate Housing
1. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf
2. Center for Economic and Policy Research
i. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-by-the-
numbers-three-years-later
ii. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitis-
increasingly-hidden-displacement-disaster
3. Journal of Environment and Urbanization
4. The World Bank
i. World Development Indicators 2012
5. Amnesty International
i. Haiti: Three years on from earthquake housing situation catastrophic
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/haiti-three-years-earthquake-housing-situation-
catastrophic-2013-01-11
6. International Alliance of Inhabitants
7. Development Education.ie
8. Aljazeera
9. Democracy Now!
10. The Nation
11. Haiti Clinic - http://haiticlinic.org/about-haiti/
12. Corbett, Bob. The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803
i. http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution1.htm#four
Networked Resources
Works Cited

Key Statistics
Development Indicators
Size of the Economy
Population Dynamics
Labor Force
Disease prevention

Key Statistics
Nutrition and Growth
Nutrition Intake & Supplements
Employment by sector
Mortality

Key Statistics
Rural population and land use
Agricultural Inputs
Deforestation and Biodiversity
Freshwater

Key Statistics
Energy production and use
Urbanization
Urban housing conditions
Traffic and congestion

Key Statistics
Fragile Situations

Key Statistics
External debt
Aid dependancy
Migration
Travel and tourism

Human Rights, Housing and Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti

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