25989: Varma: RE: (news) In Haiti, rhetoric trumps human rights (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Monika Kalra Varma <monika@rfkmemorial.org>


Boston Globe

In Haiti, rhetoric trumps human rights

By Todd Howland  |  August 16, 2005

THE US-INSPIRED peacekeeping approach being utilized by the United
Nations in Haiti is a failure. Members of Boston's growing Haitian
community should not get their hopes up for a shift in US policy,
following the recent resignation of US Ambassador to Haiti James B.
Foley. Major donors, like the United States, have confirmed time and
again their unwillingness to experiment with new methods that put human
rights of the Haitians first.

While the United States has pledged more than $1 billion, this money has
not measurably improved the level of respect for human rights of the
Haitian people, whether access to health care or justice is considered.
It is high time we face a prime stumbling-block squarely: the way money
flows to countries in crisis.

At present, the international community intervenes in a crisis using two
tools: The first is sending in the UN's blue helmets. These missions are
approved by the Security Council and paid for by member states according
to a pre-agreed payment schedule. It is only natural that the states
paying the most, like the United States and Japan, seek to limit the
number and breadth of these missions.

To that end, the United States limits UN peacekeeping missions to
putting blue helmets on the ground. Thus, peacekeepers normally spend
over 99 percent on themselves. The result is situations like Haiti,
where the peacekeeping mission's annual budget for its personnel's
health care is greater than the annual budget of the Haitian Ministry of
Health.

While security does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, many cling to
the idea that the international community needs to establish security
first and then undertake development. This might work for the conflicts
of the past, where a ceasefire between competing armies could achieve a
modicum of security. Today, chaos is common, so simultaneous work on
security and development is needed.

Realizing this, US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are working in
cooperation with USAID and others in an attempt to do
''nation-building." In Haiti, UN peacekeepers have provided no real
support to community development or implemented projects to build the
capacity of institutions needed to bolster the respect for human rights.
But have no fear. The international community's second tool is
''voluntary contributions."

How generous we are when we know that the money pledged will never
actually be disbursed. Traditionally, the central government is required
to develop a useful and sensible plan, to demonstrate the capacity to
receive money and execute projects in a timely fashion. Under ideal
circumstances, this process takes at least two years from conception to
disbursement. This may work well for functional government, but for
dysfunctional governments in chaotic countries it is not viable. Thus,
no money arrives, fueling suspicion and undermining the efficacy of the
blue helmets.

While many in the UN have spoken about the need for a new integrated
peacebuilding approach highlighting human security, the bureaucracies of
donor countries are stuck in their dated methods, and the people of
Haiti, Liberia, et al. continue to suffer.

The new UN reforms propose a Peacebuilding Commission that would force
peacekeepers and UN agencies to work together -- but unless we change
how money flows to countries in crisis, the crises will continue to
recur.

Peacekeeping missions should measurably improve the full spectrum of
human rights and be given the budget to do so. The UN already has a
Peacebuilding Trust Fund that can be used to fill the funding gap in
countries like Haiti. Some of the voluntary contributions should be
diverted to this fund to support projects using a human rights-based
approach. Peacekeepers and agencies should work with communities to
prioritize, define, and implement projects.

Communities have already defined small projects like fixing an access
road to a regional hospital and tree planting to avoid further erosion
and contamination of drinking water. While modest, they would create a
completely different relationship between the UN and the Haitian people
based first and foremost on human rights.

The US-inspired UN failure in Haiti has numerous causes, but the US
unwillingness to change its outdated money-flow modus operandi to
peacekeeping operations in order to maximize their transformative
potential shows that it is not just the UN that needs reform.

Todd Howland is director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for
Human Rights in Washington.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08
/16/in_haiti_rhetoric_trumps_human_rights/


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Corbett [mailto:corbetre@webster.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 12:15 PM
To: Monika Kalra Varma
Subject: Re: (news) In Haiti, rhetoric trumps human rights


I don't post urls alone; only full articles.

Bob