Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck near the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince, leaving at least 220,000 people dead, including 103 United States citizens, 101 United Nations personnel, and nearly 18 percent of Haiti’s civil service, as well as 300,000 injured, 115,000 homes destroyed, and 1,500,000 Haitians displaced. The international community, led by the United States and the United Nations, mounted an unprecedented humanitarian response to the earthquake in Haiti.
Through 2018, more than $8,000,000,000 has been disbursed by donors. Since the 2010 earthquake, the United States Government has disbursed more than $4,000,000,000 in recovery and development funding. On October 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew struck southwestern Haiti on the Tiburon Peninsula, causing widespread damage and flooding and leaving 1.4 million people in need of immediate assistance. Recovery efforts continue more than four years later. Prior to both the 2010 earthquake and 2016 hurricane, Haiti registered among the lowest in socioeconomic indicators and had the second highest rate of income disparity in the world—conditions that have further complicated disaster recovery and resilience efforts.
As of November 2020, 4,400,000 people were in need of humanitarian assistance in Haiti. Since 2018, tens of thousands of Haitians have participated in popular demonstrations demanding accountability over government management of Petrocaribe resources. In early 2019, the Haitian superior court of auditors released a series of reports implicating high-level government officials in the misappropriation of funds. The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Service jointly found a 333 percent increase in human rights violations and abuses against the rights of life and security in Haiti from July 2018 through December 2019.
There were 131 violations in 2018 and 567 violations in 2019, including the shooting of at least five Haitian journalists covering the protests. Leading members of civil society have faced attacks, including Monferrier Dorval, a constitutional law expert and president of the Port-au-Prince bar who was killed on August 28, 2020. On November 13, 2018, according to the Haitian National Human Rights Defense Network, at least 71 people were killed and 18 people were raped in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline.
On December 10, 2020, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated former Haitian National Police officer Jimmy Cherizier, former Director General of the Ministry of the Interior Fednel Monchery, and former Departmental Delegate Joseph Pierre Richard Duplan pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Executive Order for being foreign persons responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse for their connection to the La Saline massacre.
Following the La Saline massacre, similar attacks have occurred in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, including the November 2019 and August 2020 attacks on Bel Air, in which 24 people were killed and hundreds of families were displaced. Parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2019 did not take place, and since January 13, 2020, President Jovenel Moïse has ruled by decree. The United States and international community have urged President Moise to limit the use of executive decrees during this period and have expressed concern over several decrees issued, including those creating the National Intelligence Agency and appointing three new judges to the Supreme Court outside of constitutional procedures.
Haitian civil society organizations have denounced the president’s use of decrees as an attempt to consolidate power. Due to institutional weakness and other challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Haiti’s economy contracted by an estimated 4 percent in 2020 and inflation neared 20 percent. Although there has been no parliament in place since January 2020, the Haitian Government approved a budget on September 30, 2020. However, the delay prevented the International Monetary Fund and other multilaterals from disbursing millions in international assistance.
In September 2020, President Moïse bypassed the Supreme Court to appoint a Provisional Electoral Council
(CEP)by executive decree Several civil society groups that traditionally participate in Haiti’s electoral councils criticized the decision and have declined to be represented in the CEP. The Moïse administration lacks the credibility to oversee a proposed constitutional referendum scheduled for June 2021, which legal experts consider unconstitutional. There are concerns that, given the lack of democratic checks and balances, the dispute over the credibility of the electoral council, and the deteriorating security situation, elections scheduled for September 2021 will not be free or fair. Additionally, the security situation remains volatile and on February 7, 2021, President Moïse alleged that a coup had been attempted against him leading to 23 arrests and the forced retirement of three Supreme Court judges.