For at least three decades, not a year has passed without Haiti being the victim of a new disaster in which many lives and property are taken away. When it is not a cyclone or floods following abundant torrential rains, it is earthquakes, fires or man-made disasters such as insecurity and the actions of armed gangs. Every day, the natural vulnerability of the country due to its geographical position, get worse due to the consequences of climate change which are increasingly felt and especially the total absence of governance. With each disaster, the chain of humanitarian aid, both national and international, tries to heal a few wounds and then nothing, until the next disaster. The catastrophe becomes permanent, recurrent. Humanitarian aid, which in a normal situation should be temporary, takes over and the country gradually moves away from any resolute and sustainable development process. “The country is neither managed nor administered,” said Counselor Monferrier Dorval, president of the Bar Association of Port-au-Prince, before being assassinated in August 2020.
Several neighbouring countries of Haiti are subject to the same natural hazards, but record much less damage because there is support to be prepared to face these problems. During the first week of June 2023, which coincided with the start of the hurricane season, two disasters once again hit Haiti: floods in at least seven (7) departments and two earthquakes in Grand-Anse. As always, human lives were lost, animals drowned and property destroyed, the environment damaged. And as always, those who have the responsibility of managing the country are absent. Which makes more than one say that without a drastic break with this way of governance, we risk losing Haiti definitively.
We present here the report drawn up on the occasion by the human rights organization RNDDH (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights) which highlights this total absence of management of the country and the urgent need for a new governance to put an end to this chain of disasters.
