Position of the stakeholders signatories of the political agreement of April 3, 2024 for a peaceful and orderly transition on the political situation in the country
Document dated April 13, 2024
Submitted to AlterPresse
The undersigned representatives of political, economic, religious and civil society organizations, stakeholders in the political process leading to the signing, on April 3, 2024, with the facilitation of CARICOM, of the Agreement for a Pacific Transition and Ordered, salute the courage of the Haitian people, victims, particularly over the past 34 months, of an unprecedented deterioration of the security, socio-economic situation and the living conditions of the vast majority of our fellow citizens.
These organizations are deeply shocked upon learning of the decree published on April 12, 2024 by the government chaired by the impeached Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry, and denounce the introduction of major modifications which distort the consensual project of a two-headed executive carried by the Presidential Transitional Council, consensus patiently and laboriously built between Stakeholders from March 11, 2024.
The undersigned organizations, stakeholders in the dialogue process whose results enabled the agreement of March 11, 2024, contest the validity of the decree of April 12, 2024 for the following reasons:
1. The impeded Prime Minister and his resigning government have deliberately chosen not to respect the commitments to which they subscribed, through their direct representatives grouped within the Agreement of December 21 (see correspondence of April 1, 2024 addressed to the Chiefs of State and Government of CARICOM by the signatories of the Agreement of December 21 to designate Dr. Louis Gérald Gilles as member of the Presidential Transitional Council). Stakeholders, including representatives of this Government, have designated their representatives to the Presidential Transitional Council under the conditions defined jointly at the meeting of March 11, 2024.
2. The impeded Prime Minister and the resigned government chose not to publish, or even mention, the Political Agreement of April 3, 2024 in the decree of April 12 creating the Presidential Transitional Council and not to make it public The monitor Special No. 14-A relating to the “Order appointing the Members of the Presidential Transitional Council”. However, it should be remembered that Prime Minister Ariel Henry came to power in exceptional circumstances linked to the assassination on July 7, 2021 of President Jovenel Moise, thanks to three political agreements, two of which were published in Le Moniteur .
3. These exceptional circumstances were first translated into the Agreement of September 11, 2021, published in the Moniteur on September 17, 2021 to consolidate the power of Dr. Ariel Henry freshly invested on July 22, 2021 by his predecessor the Prime Minister ai Claude Joseph; these exceptional circumstances were subsequently translated into the Agreement of December 21, 2022, published in the Moniteur on January 3, 2023, to extend the mandate of Prime Minister Ariel Henry until February 7, 2024.
4. After approximately 33 months of exercising power, these exceptional circumstances worsened with “lost territories”, the floods of internally displaced persons, the interruption of the country’s supply circuits, the dysfunction of the Administration public, etc. All this amply justifies the publication in the Moniteur of the Agreement of April 3, 2024, creating the Presidential Transitional Council and the establishment of a Government of rescue and national unity led by a new Prime Minister of consensus, in accordance with the commitments made, in the presence of CARICOM, by this de facto Government.
5. We must recall that in the absence of the Political Agreements of September 11, 2021 and December 21, 2022, no member of the current Cabinet would have been eligible to be Minister or Prime Minister based on the provisions of the constitution.
6. Stakeholders remain committed to the consensus built from March 11, 2024. Consensus which is codified in the Agreement for a Peaceful and Orderly Transition signed on April 3, 2024 between different actors, including the signatories of the Agreement of 21 December 2022.
The undersigned stakeholders demand strict compliance with the commitments to which the resigning government made during the CARICOM-led political process. They ask that arrangements be made to:
Publish in Le Moniteur the political agreement and the document relating to the organization and functioning of the Presidential Council;
Connect the bipartisan transfer of powers commissions;
Install as soon as possible the Presidential Transitional Council in the form and content defined in the Political Agreement for a Peaceful and Orderly Transition of April 3, 2024.
Follow signatures :
Agreement of August 30, 2021 known as the Montana Agreement
Andrée Magali COMEAU DENIS
Ernst MATHURIN
Jacques Ted ST DIC
Agreement of December 21, 2022
Saurel HYACINTHE
Vikerson GARNIER
Employer associations and groups of Haitian businessmen and women
Raina FORBIN
Pierre Marie Boisson
Collective of Political Parties of January 30, 2023
Clarens RENOIS
Liné BALTHAZAR
Fanmi Lavalas Political Organization
Lesly VOLTAIRE
Desalin’s Son Party
Weesley PIERRE
Democratic Resistance Platform (RED/EDE) and the Historical Compromise political grouping
Sterline CIVIL
A. Rodon Beloved
Civil Society Group
Georges Wilbert FRANCK
Pierre Jean Raymond ANDRE
Rally for a National Agreement (REN)/Inter-Faith
René JEAN-JUMEAU
Jean Lucien LIGONDÉ
