Decrees in Haiti make it difficult to prosecute corrupt officials, erode press freedom
Anti-corruption and human rights advocates in Haiti are urging Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé to revoke a controversial decree they say makes it nearly impossible to prosecute former senior government officials, including members of the country’s recently disbanded Transitional Presidential Council.
The measure, which lays out procedures for the constitutionally mandated High Court of Justice, extends the court’s jurisdiction to former officials and sets out a complicated process that effectively shields officials accused of corruption and abuse of power from facing ordinary criminal courts.
One of its most striking measures is that in order for someone to be impeached, two-thirds of the members of the Lower Chamber of Deputies in Parliament would need to agree. It’s a threshold, the groups say, that’s “practically impossible” to achieve in a country where political parties exercise little control over members and lawmakers are notorious for selling their their votes to the highest bidders.
“It’s a decree that was created to protect people who steal the state’s money,” said Rosy Auguste Ducena, a lawyer and program director for the National Human Rights Defense Network. “It’s extremely grave.”
The decree was issued in December and is one of two recently passed measures that advocates are calling on Fils-Aimé to annul. The other is a decree authorizing prison terms for journalists convicted of criminal defamation. The measure was adopted soon after the High Court decree, and both were backed by the ruling presidential council as they were preparing to end their nearly two-year mandate while simultaneously maneuvering to retain power by attempting to oust the prime minister.
Fils-Aimé ultimately survived with backing from Washington and other leading foreign diplomats in the country. Now, as he seeks to reshape his government as Haiti’s sole leader, he is being pressured to honor his pledge to fight corruption.
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Civil society groups say the High Court decree violates the country’s 1987 constitution and international anti-corruption treaties that Haiti has signed. If it remains, they warn that “corruption and impunity, already erected as a system, will continue to erode the Haitian public administration, making the protection, respect and realization of human rights utopian.”
Their plea to Fils-Aimé was issued in an open letter signed by the National Human Rights Defense Network, Nou Pap Domi, NÈGÈS MAWON and the Platform of Haitian Human Rights. All have been outspoken about entrenched corruption and lack of accountability for public officials accused of wrongdoing.
They note that in more than a decade few officials have been prosecuted even though Haiti’s anti-corruption unit opened more than 100 cases. Among the most glaring are allegations that more than $2 billion was mismanaged under Venezuela’s PetroCaribe discounted-oil program. Haiti’s Superior Court of Auditors has said the funds, intended to rebuild the country after the 2010 earthquake, were squandered during the administration of former President Michel Martelly.
Fight for accountability
“One of the biggest obstacles we face is impunity — the lack of accountability, the weakness of the judiciary, the weaponization of institutions,” said Pascale Solages, co-founder of the feminist organization NÈGÈS MAWON.
Although the decree has been met largely with silence in Haiti, Solages said her organization and Nou Pap Domi, which led the accountability fight around the Venezuelan oil program, signed the letter as part of their broader campaign for justice, particularly in cases involving women and girls. The presidential council’s 21 months in office, which ended on Feb. 7, was marked not only by allegations of wrongdoing, but thousands of documented cases of rapes for which women and girls received no recourse from the government, she said.
“It was a period of significant corruption and depletion of the public coffers, with little action to help the population in general and women and girls in particular,” she said. “It’s important to bring them face to face with their responsibility and to prevent them from weaponizing the justice system to protect themselves.”
Solages’ group was among those that supported the establishment of the presidential transition in 2024. But the lack of monitoring by others has resulted in “a lack of pressure, a lack of influence, a lack of collective pressure” on the government, she said.
“It says a lot about the state of the country and the context we are living in today,” Solages added, “when [officials] believe they have the power to take such measures at a moment when everyone should revolt and denounce what happened.”
Government approved
Advocates note that the High Court decree wasn’t just approved by the nine-member presidential council, it had the support of everyone in the transition. The decree, later published in the country’s official gazette, Le Moniteur, was signed by Council President Laurent Saint-Cyr, Fils-Aimé and all 18 cabinet ministers.
“There isn’t one person who doesn’t benefit from this,” said Ducena.
That includes individuals who have been cited by government anti-corruption bodies for alleged money laundering, arms trafficking and other crimes. It also includes the three council members who were indicted after being accused of attempting to extort the director of a state-owned bank. The case had been before an appeals court, which instructed an investigative judge to wait until the officials left office before summoning them for questioning.
“With this decree, he can’t pursue the case,” Ducena said of the investigative judge. She noted that the country’s anti-corruption agency had also sought action against the sitting sports minister in a $76,000 embezzlement case. The minister, Niola Lynn Sarah Devalien Octavius, is accused of diverting funds earmarked for national celebrations.
“With this decree, she won’t be brought before a regular court,” Ducena said.
Constitutional lawyers in Haiti broadly agree that there is a need for the High Court of Justice, which is provided for in the constitution, to have clearer provisions on its functions. But they question whether it needed to be a priority for the transitional government given Haiti’s prolonged political and humanitarian crisis.
“We are in an exceptional situation of unconstitutionality. It was not the moment to treat this question... They wanted to protect themselves so that justice cannot pursue them,” said Ducena..
She added that the extension of the court’s jurisdiction to former government officials is illegal because of a previous decision by the Haitian Parliament. Lawmakers stipulated that once someone leaves office, they are “a simple citizen” and any allegations on wrongdoing during their time in office should go before an ordinary court.
“The law they passed even said you don’t even need to seek authorization from Parliament in order to be judged,” Ducena said. “With his decree they’ve passed there isn’t one person who it doesn’t protect.”
A day after the High Court of Justice decree was published, council members approved another decree regulating the exercise of freedom of expression, aimed at the “prevention and repression” of defamation and “press crimes.” Journalists convicted of the acts can receive up to three years in prison.
Imprisoning journalists
The decree has been denounced by Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the human rights arm of the Organization of American States. The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned that the decree could unduly restrict freedom of expression and criminalize criticism of public officials.
“This law threatens to inhibit public debate and accountability in a particularly sensitive context for the country,” the office said, urging Haitian authorities to repeal the decree, to refrain from adopting provisions that unduly restrict freedom of expression, and to guarantee press freedom as an essential pillar of democratic transition.
The Center to Protect Journalists noted that criminal defamation under Haiti’s penal code has rarely been used. The decree, the group said, is a troubling sign of how the media could be treated both during and after the first election planned in a decade.
Ducena said the defamation decree affects human rights group as well, who have been vocal in calling out corruption
Both decrees, she said, were passed with the same purpose in mind: “To shut everyone up.”
