Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR)

Reforming Haiti’s Security Sector

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The violent April 2008 protests against the high cost of living underscored the continued fragility of Haiti’s security situation and the need for rapid progress in security sector reform (SSR). This International Crisis Group report examines Haiti’s security sector and argues that stability lies in expediting and concluding reforms to the police and justice sector, and improving cross-border cooperation with it neighbours. These challenges are all the more urgent, as they come at a time when Haiti is struggling with severe hurricane devastation.

Operations led by the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH) largely disbanded armed gangs in the slums of Haiti’s cities in early 2007, but security and stability are far from consolidated. Serious crime persists, especially kidnapping and drug trafficking, and in the absence of a sufficiently large and fully operational police force, and functioning justice and penitentiary systems, it threatens to undermine political progress. This was evident with the fall of Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis’s government following April 2008 protests and riots against high living costs.

The new Prime Minister, Michèle Pierre-Louis, and President René Préval need to act immediately and decisively, utilising MINUSTAH and donor help, to conclude police and justice reform.

• The Haitian National Police (HNP) faces questions over the speed and depth of the vetting process to purge it of corrupt elements, and its willingness to fully investigate possible human rights abuses. Meanwhile, recruitment is insufficient to reach the goal of 14,000 police officers by 2011, as specified in the 2006 HNP reform plan.
• Haiti still lacks the basic capacity to detain, prosecute and sentence offenders, especially those for serious crimes. Also, correction facilities remain in awful shape, vulnerable to prison breaks and filled with suspects who have never seen a judge.
• SSR has a regional dimension: Haiti’s borders are porous, vulnerable to drug trafficking, general smuggling and other illegal activities that weaken the rule of law and deprive the state of vital revenue.

The devastation left by the procession of tropical storms and hurricanes compounded an already difficult situation for the new Haitian Government. Making decisive and swift headway with SSR is a vital part of any durable solutions to its political and economic, as well as security problems. The Government of Haiti needs to:

• strengthen reform of the HNP and speed up the process to create a modestly sized 14,000-strong force - building a professional HNP is the best way to pre-empt dangerous, politically motivated pressures to reconstitute the notorious army;
• strengthen the rule of law by speeding implementation of the justice legislation parliament passed in late 2007, conclude vetting of the members of the Superior Judicial Council and establish special chambers to bring cases of serious crime to trial - correction facilities must also be improved;
• deal more assertively and effectively with border issues by concluding agreements with the Dominican Republic on border development and security - these should cover migration, economic and environmental issues, as well as trans-border organised crime and law enforcement; and
• implement (with donor assistance) comprehensive violence reduction programmes that recognise the linkages between severe poverty, social deprivation and crime.

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