PRESS RELEASE
OCNH POSITION ON THE STRIKE OF MAGISTRATES STANDING UP IN HAITI
The Organization of Citizens for a New Haiti (OCNH), a human rights organization engaged in an advocacy campaign for the strengthening of state institutions and judicial governance in particular, notes with great concern that the Collective of Standing Haitian Magistrates (COMADH) has observed a new work stoppage, thus paralyzing all activities in the eighteen (18) Jurisdictions of the Courts of First Instance of the Republic. For its part, the National Association of Haitian Clerks (ANAGH) is in solidarity with the strike of standing magistrates for the same causes, namely, demands relating to unequal treatment.
Following discussions with COMADH and ANAGH officials, this Tuesday, July 9, 2024, the OCNH learned that the authorities at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security have already provided some insignificant satisfaction to the strikers’ demands. The OCNH takes this opportunity to recall that over the past four years, Haitian justice has experienced moments of chronic dysfunction not only because of political turbulence and work stoppages by judicial personnel but especially because of the deterioration of the country’s security climate. Litigants are always the main victims of these situations.
The OCNH acknowledges the relevance of the Magistrates’ demands to combat wage inequalities in the Haitian Judiciary, including better working conditions. However, the OCNH deplores that this movement is launched in a context where the judicial system must mobilize to provide responses to serious human rights violations, impunity and the fight against arbitrary detention. Survivors of rape and sexual violence who are victims of armed gangs are awaiting justice and reparations. The phenomenon of impunity and the fight against corruption cannot be effectively addressed by a virtually dysfunctional justice system. The OCNH cannot forget the issue of more than four thousand detainees who escaped from the Civil Prison of Port-au-Prince and that of Croix-des-Bouquets, which deserves urgent treatment by the Police and Justice.
Consequently, the OCNH, as part of its advocacy for good judicial governance, is prepared to play a facilitating role in this matter in the search for a negotiated solution and calls on the stakeholders to go beyond this and return to the discussion table in order to guarantee respect for the principle of continuity of public justice services.
Port-au-Prince, July 10, 2024.
Camille OCCIUS
Executive Director
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