March 24, 2005Mr. Santiago A. Canton, Executive Secretary
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Organization of American States
1889 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20006Re: The Republic of Haiti’s Exclusion of Human Rights Lawyer Ira J. Kurzban; Request for Provisional Measures
Dear Secretary Canton:
This communication is to bring to the immediate attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the Interim Government of Haiti’s (IGH) exclusion of Attorney Ira J. Kurzban on March 7, 2005. Mr. Kurzban, a prominent human rights and immigration lawyer, flew to Haiti as part of a human rights delegation, but was not allowed out of the airport. This exclusion is not only an interference with human rights work and an egregious infringement of the rights of Mr. Kurzban’s clients, it is possibly a retaliation for testimony three days before at the IACHR. In light of the seriousness of this attack on a human rights worker, we are requesting protective measures pursuant to Articles 18 and 19 of the Statute of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
All of the undersigned testified at the IACHR’s Hearing of a General Nature on Haiti on March 4. We take this opportunity to thank the Commission for its time and its consideration of the evidence presented about the systematic and severe violations of human rights in Haiti. We are submitting this communication as a supplement to that information. We would like to draw the Commission’s particular attention to the fact that Mr. Kurzban is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which coordinated the request for the hearing.
Attorney Kurzban has been the U.S. attorney for Haiti’s democratically elected governments since 1991. He has also represented members of Haiti’s constitutional governments, including President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, and former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, both political prisoners in Haiti, as well as many other clients in Haiti. Mr. Kurzban has been a prominent critic of the IGH’s human rights record. He was one of the founders of IJDH, and the organization’s website lists him as a member of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Kurzban arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at 9:30 AM on March 7, aboard American Airlines flight 377. Kurzban, Representative Maxine Waters and the rest of the delegation had announced their visit in advance. They intended to visit political prisoners in Haitian jails, including Ministers Neptune and Privert, both of whom were on a hunger strike, in order to assess their health and the prison conditions. Mr. Kurzban also sought to confer with other clients in Haiti, including victims of human rights abuses.
Upon landing at the airport, Mr. Kurzban was barred from entering the country. The U.S. Embassy’s charg é d’affaires in Haiti informed him that Haitian authorities would arrest him if he entered the country. Mr. Kurzban replied that he had nothing to hide, and tried to enter anyway, but Haitian officials blocked him, without providing an explanation. He was forced to return to the U.S. on the next flight. After a delay, the other members of the delegation were allowed to continue.
Mr. Kurzban intends to make another trip to Haiti soon in order to complete his humanitarian mission to assess the health and condition of the political prisoners currently being held unlawfully by the de facto Haitian government in the National Penitentiary, and to confer with clients. The undersigned request the Commission to take all appropriate action to ensure that Mr. Kurzban is allowed to complete this mission, including requesting the Inter-American Court to institute precautionary provisional measures.
The request for institution of provisional measures is authorized under Articles 19(c) of the Statute of the Inter-American Commission, which grants the Commission the power to:
request the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to take such provisional measures as it considers appropriate in serious and urgent cases which have not yet been submitted to it for consideration, whenever this becomes necessary to prevent irreparable injury to persons.
Mr. Kurzban’s exclusion fits the standard for provisional measures under Article 19(c), because the matter is a serious and urgent one, which requires immediate intervention to prevent irreparable injury. Mr. Kurzban’s visit to Haiti was intended to help document detention conditions and the health of political prisoners being held unlawfully in the National Penitentiary. Two of the prisoners Mr. Kurzban intended to visit, Ministers Neptune and Privert, were engaged in a hunger strike to protest the fact that in almost a year of incarceration they have not been brought before the judge on their case. Both have subsequently been moved to a hospital for treatment, but neither has been released from custody, and both may be returned soon to the prison. Other political prisoners are at risk as well, as the report we presented on March 4, Report on December 1 Massacre in the Haitian National Penitentiary, documents.
Mr. Kurzban’s exclusion is the latest of a series of attempts to thwart investigation and reporting on human rights violations in Haiti, especially in the prisons. The Report on December 1 Massacre documented how independent Haitian human rights workers, journalists, and even families of detainees are denied access to prisoners. As we testified on March 4, journalist Abdias Jean was executed by police on January 14, as he was covering a police sweep in a poor neighborhood. Mr. Kurzban’s exclusion, like Mr. Jean’s killing, not only prevents him from investigating and reporting on violations, it has a chilling effect on other human rights workers. Limits on reporting of human rights violations already cause irreparable injury: each day that has passed without full information reaching the world outside the prisons has meant hundreds of men and women spending another unjustified day in prison. On these unjustified days, prisoners die from police bullets or untreated disease.
Accordingly, we request that the Commission urge the Inter-American Court to: (1) address the plight of the political prisoners in Haiti; and (2) require the IGH to ensure the safe-passage of Mr. Kurzban in and throughout the country of Haiti; including inspection of jail conditions and conferences with political prisoners at the National Penitentiary.
The undersigned also request the Commission to pursue this matter with the IGH, including steps pursuant to Article 18(b) of the Statute of the Inter-American Commission which grants the IACHR the power, with respect to the member states of the Organization of American States:
to make recommendations to the governments of the states on the adoption of progressive measures in favor of human rights in the framework of their legislation, constitutional provisions and international commitments, as well as appropriate measures to further observance of those rights.
Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Commission provides that:
In serious and urgent cases, and whenever necessary according to the information available, the Commission may, on its own intitiative or at the request of a party, request that the State concerned adopt precautionary measures to prevent irreparable harm to persons.
We request that the IACHR recommend and request to the IGH that it allow entry to Ira Kurzban and to any other human rights worker or lawyer who otherwise satisfies the conditions for entry into Haiti, with no restrictions other than those imposed on all visitors. Furthermore, we request the that the IACHR urge the IGH to immediately free Ministers Neptune and Privert, and all political prisoners whose detention is not legally justified in court files.
We thank the Commission in advance for its prompt attention to this matter. We would be happy to assist with any additional information that is needed.
Very truly yours,
Brian Concannon Jr., Esq., Director
Institute for Justice and Democracy in HaitiThomas Griffin, Esq., Partner
Morley, Surin & Griffin, P.C.Benjamin Litman
Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human RightsIrwin Stotzky, Esq., Director
Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami Law Schoolcc: Human Rights Defenders Unit
