Tuesday, April 4, 2006

by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti Correspondent
Email: vario@caribbeannetnews.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: The atmosphere during the recent anniversary of the Haitian constitution differed considerably from the peaceful nineteenth anniversary of the constitution on March 29, 1987.

Although no large-scale activity marked the March 29, 2006 event, Necker Dessable of the Office of the Protection of Citizen (OPC) seized this opportunity to plead with the public to respect and abide by the constitution. This climate also contrasted with the heavy shootings that prevailed in Port-au-Prince during the Constitution’s anniversary last year.

As in previous years, the anniversary of the Haitian constitution provoked debates in the mass-media about whether to uphold the current constitution, create new amendments or adopt a new one altogether.

On February 22, the president-elect Rene Préval announced that the creation and consolidation of institutions envisaged by the constitution is a priority of the future government.

In front of the Security Council of the United Nations on the same day, Provisional Prime Minister Gerard Latortue stated that the international assistance must concentrate on the reinforcement of the capacities of the democratic institutions such as the Parliament, the municipalities and the other local authorities, as well as the consolidation of the legal system and increased professionalism among the Haitian police force.

On March 13, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) called upon the Haitian president-elect to reform the judicial system, which is considered to be "very defective almost on all the levels".

Several reported scandals plagued the constitution’s anniversary, as the Haitian legal system wallows in difficulties. The latest incident involves the mysterious disappearance of files to the Instruction Cabinet.

No explanation has been provided concerning the files in question and multiple cases of prolonged custody worry human rights organizations. According to OPC, there is currently a rate of 92.2 % of prisoners who are awaiting a determination of their cases by the courts.

In a report covering the time span from November 2005 through March 2006, OPC reveals that the prison population in the National Penitentiary (the principal prison of Haiti) reached two thousand prisoners, despite its capacity to hold between 800 and 1,000 prisoners.

The scandal involving the missing files was preceded by another event which brought the Justice Minister to "temporarily unattach" the judge of instruction and three members of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Port-au-Prince. These magistrates are suspected of having manipulated decisions in favor of supposed kidnappers.

In an opened letter addressed to the president-elect mid-March 2006, the "Citizen Forum for the reform of the Justice", which gathers lawyers and human rights organizations, drew the attention of Rene Préval to crucial problems facing Haitian justice.

These difficulties relate to the strong dependence of Haitian justice on government, the fact that the judicial enquiries do not come to an end, the absence of legal aid for the ordinary citizens, the lack of timely justice, and the corruption which afflicts the system so that there is no legal safeguard.

The Citizen Forum reminded the future leader of Haiti that "the process of the Justice reform should not concentrate exclusively on partial reforms, starting from the Justice Ministry through decrees". But "it takes part in the reform of the State and the social transformation by the establishment of new democratic and institutional practices".

On March 23, a former minister, Jean Joseph Exumé, also a member of "Citizen Justice Forum", considered that "there never were efforts of the State and the society so that we can have a real judicial power in Haiti".

According to Exumé, the various Haitian constitutions, from the first to the one of 1987, never provided the tools to equip the country with judicial power.

Instead, the lawyer insists they created conditions for a kind of symbiosis between the government and legislature. Jean Joseph Exumé stressed that the emergence of strong judicial power would break the impunity criminals currently enjoy, especially those responsible for economic crimes.

Written after the fall of the dynasty of Duvalier and massively voted for by the Haitian population on March 29, 1987, the constitution was to mark a rupture with a rejected past and to engage the country on the way of democracy.

This report produces a contradictory standpoint. Some specialists plead for a new constitution and others ask for a simple amendment. According to the historian Claude Moïse, the methods of revision established by the constitution make it necessary to wait at least nine years before being able to remove a comma of the text.

In Moïse’s opinion, the only way of circumventing these inherent political and technical difficulties would be "to entrust to the 48th legislature the responsibility to supplement the institutional standardization of the State, while carrying out the necessary amendments, notwithstanding the constitutional times, which would require a national agreement between the newly elected officials, the political parties and the civil society organizations, on the recognition of the urgency of the amendments".

In spite of its various fortunes since its approval, some specialists remain favorable to the maintenance of the current constitution. For example, lawyer Fritzo Canton feels the laws are not bad in fact. They are rather "our leaders who did not recognize their value yet" and who refuse to respect them.

As the historian George Michel recalled, "The Constitution of 1987 is the third Haitian Constitution which has lasted longest after two constitutions of the 19th century, the constitution of 1889 (known as the immortal one) and the constitution of 1816 which lasted 29 and 27 years respectively".

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