Con­demn the Recent Forced Evic­tions and Urge the State Depart­ment to Act

Please call the State Depart­ment (202–647-5291 and press 1 for the com­ment line) and urge them to con­demn the recent forced evic­tions and pro­mote a new par­tic­i­pa­tory relo­ca­tion plan that adheres to inter­na­tional human rights stan­dards and is cre­ated through direct con­sul­ta­tion with Hait­ian camp lead­ers, par­tic­u­larly women lead­ers, and grass­roots move­ments. Be Part of the Solu­tion for Haiti: Make a Dif­fer­ence in Half an Hour a Month

Urgent Action Needed

Today, the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti, the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux, the Cen­ter for Con­sti­tu­tional Rights, You.Me.We  and TransAfrica Forum urged the Inter-American Com­mis­sion on Human Rights to renew its call on the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti to imple­ment a mora­to­rium on evic­tions from dis­place­ment camps until a com­pre­hen­sive return and reset­tle­ment plan — one that pro­tects the human rights of Haitians dis­placed from the earth­quake — is adopted and implemented.

The sit­u­a­tion of forced evic­tions from Haiti’s Inter­nally Dis­placed Per­sons (IDP) camps has grown even more urgent since Haiti’s new Pres­i­dent Michel Martelly took office this May. Martelly has faced crit­i­cism for his pledge to close all camps within six months with­out pro­vid­ing a real­is­tic, con­crete plan for relo­cat­ing those cur­rently liv­ing in camps.  In his first few weeks in office, gov­ern­ment offi­cials have already unlaw­fully closed at least three camps, forc­ing approx­i­mately 1,000 res­i­dents out of their pro­vi­sional shel­ter with­out pro­vid­ing them with any alter­na­tive hous­ing. Pres­i­dent Martelly has not pub­licly con­demned these evictions. On May 19^th, Martelly announced to a set­tle­ment of 100,000 res­i­dents on the out­skirts of Port-au-Prince that they would be evicted in the com­ing weeks in order to make room for a fac­tory. He made no men­tion of alter­na­tive housing.

U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Hilary Clin­ton made recent remarks that the US wants “to do every­thing we can to be a good part­ner for Haiti.” Clin­ton must real­ize that sup­port­ing Martelly does not trans­late into being a good part­ner to Haiti’s poor major­ity. Martelly’s writ­ten plan for relo­cat­ing peo­ple has not been made in con­sul­ta­tion with any camps or grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions, and has been crit­i­cized as vague and unre­al­istic.

Please call the State Depart­ment and urge them to con­demn the recent forced evic­tions and pro­mote a new par­tic­i­pa­tory relo­ca­tion plan that adheres to inter­na­tional human rights stan­dards and is cre­ated through direct con­sul­ta­tion with Hait­ian camp lead­ers, par­tic­u­larly women lead­ers, and grass­roots movements.

Call the State Depart­ment at 202–647-5291 and press 1 for the com­ment line.

Sug­gested comment:

Hi, my name is  _____ and I want to urge the U.S. State Depart­ment to do every­thing it can to dis­cour­age the Hait­ian government’s ille­gal and vio­lent evic­tions of earth­quake sur­vivors from camps for Inter­nally Dis­placed Per­sons. The Depart­ment should con­demn the evic­tions and insist that relo­ca­tions be done in con­sul­ta­tion with the affected peo­ple and to safe, ade­quate alter­na­tive housing.