24566: Roberts (news) Harvard Report Criticizes UN Efforts in Haiti

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M.E. Roberts <meroberts495@netscape.com>

The Harvard Crimson
http://www.thecrimson.com/


March 25, 2005

Harvard Law School Report Criticizes UN Efforts in Haiti
By WILLIAM L. JUSINO
Contributing Writer


One year after the forced departure of president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, Haiti may be in danger of becoming a “failed state,”
according to a report released on Monday by the Clinical Advocacy
Project, a division of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School
(HLS).

The report, “Keeping the Peace in Haiti?”, criticizes the United
Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a Brazilian-led
peace-keeping operation established by a UN mandate in April of last
year.

Authored by two second-year HLS students, Benjamin S. Litman and
Pooja A. Bhatia `98-`99, the report rebukes MINUSTAH for adopting a
“timid interpretation of its mandate,” and offers recommendations to
ameliorate the situation.

“The report certainly is a harsh criticism of MINUSTAH, because
MINUSTAH deserves that criticism, but it is meant to be a
constructive criticism,” Lipman said. “We think they have the
capacity, they just have to realize it, that’s all.”

The authors criticize MINUSTAH for failing to accomplish the three
components of its mandate— “providing a secure and stable
environment, particularly through disarmament; supporting the
political process and good governance in preparation for upcoming
elections; and monitoring and reporting on human rights”— and claim
that Haiti is “as insecure as ever.”

It includes a list of alleged failings and abuses on the part of
MINUSTAH, including the claim that the group did not investigate
alleged killings of hospitalized patients by members of the Haitian
National Police.

Though Bhatia acknowledged the difficulty of MINUSTAH’s task, she
said she hopes that more will be done.

“To be sure, it is a huge task,” she said. “Haiti is a really
complicated place, and it hasn’t functioned properly in a long time.”

To initiate efforts for improving MINUSTAH’s performance in Haiti,
HLS Human Rights Program Clinical Director James L. Cavallaro `84,
who served as the editor of the report, released its findings in
Brazil earlier this week. He said yester that the report met with
some controversy in an already-tense Brazil.

“It has really stirred things up, it’s promoted debate on the role of
the UN in Haiti, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “We want to
engage all the authorities so that they cannot pass the buck as they
have tried to do with [the] hospitals.”

Cavallaro met with the Brazilian National Director for Human Rights
on Wednesday, Nilmario Miranda, to present the conclusions of the
report. Cavallaro said that Miranda received the report well and
promised to look into the alleged hospital abuses. He added that
Miranda also planned to organize a commission to research, document
and report on the human rights situation in Haiti.

“The bottom line is that the UN mandate demands a lot of the
Brazilian troops, and they haven’t stepped up yet, Cavallaro said.

Despite these difficulties, Litman was hopeful, citing progress made
as soon as a day after the release of the report.

“It definitely seems to be having an effect,” he said.


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