P-au-P, 23 from 2024 [AlterPresse] — The creation of the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit of Haiti (Uect Haiti) could greatly give rise to abuses and violations of the rights and freedom of others, warns the human rights organization Bright eye foundation (Fjkl), in a report dated Wednesday May 22, 2024 noted by the online agency AlterPresse.
Uect Haiti was created, following the signing, on February 14, 2024, between the de facto holder of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Mjsp), Emmeline Prophète Milcé and the American government, of a cooperation agreement in security matters, called the Memorandum of Cooperation (Mdc).
The MDC would aim to increase coordinated efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations by strengthening investigative capabilities and improving information sharing.
The fact, by the Mdc, of providing that the actions of Uect Haiti agents will be carried out in compliance with the laws applicable in Haiti, “poses a serious dilemma”, since “our code of criminal procedure (code of criminal investigation ) dates from 1835 and does not provide the means to proceed in front of these new structures, called upon to face the new threats, which society finds itself confronted with,” points out the Fjkl.
It raises a set of questions, linked, in particular, to the management of modern means of investigation with Uect Haiti, to the control of telephone tapping, to arbitrary arrests and arrests, to the rights of a detainee that we would like transfer to the United States of America, upon extradition.
The Fjkl deplores the absence of a procedural framework for interventions by this unit, likely, it says, to leave the door open to abuses and cases of human rights violations.
“The absence of clear rules for proceeding before these new authorities often gives rise to the strengthening of authoritarianism, the development of chieftaincy and abuses of all kinds. (…) The absence of clear rules of procedure transforms an entity, which has all the characteristics to be the flagship of institutions fighting corruption and transnational organized crime, into a tool for settling scores and persecuting citizens. and citizens”.
With the Uect Haiti, the Fjkl calls to avoid the same errors committed by the Office of Financial and Economic Affairs (Bafe), “which has transformed into an arbitrary institution, which hardly cares about the limits of its powers and the forms to carry out the arrest of citizens, due to the absence of pre-established procedural rules.”
Having established itself as an audit institution, Bafe would have attacked banking, social or religious institutions in defiance of the law, she criticizes.
The Bright eye foundation urges the Haitian State to find the right balance between increasing criminal repression in the fight against transnational organized crime and protecting the rights and freedom of others.
She says she is also pleading “for the adoption of a new penal code taking into account the criticisms of society against the code published by Jovenel Moĩse (former president assassinated on July 7, 2024) and the adoption of a new procedural code criminal law to enable Haitian society to face the new threats to which it is exposed with an adapted legal framework.
The Fjkl notes, however, some positive points, even if it raises criticisms and questions around the implementation of the actions of Uect Haiti and the Mdc.
The Mdc, which is in no way contrary to Haiti’s international commitments nor to Haitian legislation in the fight against transnational crime, would represent “a significant effort of effective cooperation in the fight against transnational crime.” she argues.
This memorandum of cooperation would rather aim to rationalize the efforts of the institutions responsible for implementing the law and to maximize results.
Haiti has signed and ratified several international conventions relating to transnational crime, including in particular the United Nations convention against illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances, adopted in Vienna on December 19, 1988 and ratified by Haiti by the decree of September 4 1990, recalls the Fjkl.
In addition to the 1988 convention, Haiti also signed and ratified the United Nations convention against transnational organized crime and the related protocols, known as the Palermo convention, which also provides for mutual legal assistance between States, seizure , confiscation of proceeds of crime, extradition, information sharing, sharing of criminal investigation skills and transfer of proceedings. [emb rc apr 23/05/2024 10:55]
