Robert Maguire, Chairman of USIP's Haiti Working Group, analyzes the various aspects of security – political, economic, personal and criminal – in Haiti.

pb 96

Summary

  • President Michel Martelly takes office at a time when Haitians are frustrated with the pace and scale of earthquake recovery and insecure about the future.
  • Haitians are uncertain what to expect from their new leader who has promised much and who now must address a broad range of immediate needs.
  • Progress toward improved personal, social, economic, environmental, political and energy security for Haiti’s citizens has been mixed.
  • The Haitian National Police comprise an important building block for improving Haiti’s personal safety and security environment. A greater effort is needed to deal with Haiti’s chronic problems with jobs, education, health care and housing.

About this Brief

This report is based on views expressed during a May 25, 2011 public forum entitled “The Challenges of Keeping Haitians Safe” hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace Haiti Working Group. The forum featured panel presentations by Ambassador Thomas Adams, Haiti Special Coordinator, U.S. Department of State; Farid Zarif, Director, Europe and Latin America Division, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations; Dr. Yasmine Shamsie, Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada; and Dr. Robert Fatton, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, University of Virginia. Professor Robert Maguire, Chairman of the USIP Haiti Working Group, moderated the session and co-authored the report.

Related Publications

What a Transitional Government in Haiti will Require to Succeed

What a Transitional Government in Haiti will Require to Succeed

Thursday, March 28, 2024

By: Nicolás Devia-Valbuena;  Keith Mines

After weeks of consultations, and amidst a near total breakdown of law and order in Haiti, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-led effort to create a new transitional governing council may be nearing completion. The council’s establishment would allow for the entry of a multinational security force that would then be able to join with the Haitian National Police and restore order. Some have suggested the inclusion of “enablers” for the new security force — air support, drones, intelligence. But to gain the trust of the Haitian people, the new governing council will need its own popular “enablers,” a systematic way to include many more sectors of Haitian society that are currently ignored or deliberately excluded from governance.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

Monday, March 25, 2024

By: Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps

In the past few years, life in Haiti has been dominated by gangs’ growing control over huge swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince. For Haitian families, this crisis has meant extreme violence, pervasive unemployment, lack of education for children and reduced access to health care. 2023 Women Building Peace Award finalist Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps serves as the deputy executive director, the head of the women's health program and the manager of the clinical research unit of GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince. She spoke to USIP about how her work helps women and their families, and what the global community can do to help Haitian civil society address this devastating humanitarian crisis.

Type: Blog

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGender

For Peace in Haiti, Let’s Build on the Success We’re Ignoring

For Peace in Haiti, Let’s Build on the Success We’re Ignoring

Thursday, March 21, 2024

By: Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps;  USIP Staff

Haiti’s new eruption of violence threatens anarchy and famine for its 11 million people and endangers security in the entire region, yet “an old narrative that ‘Haiti is hopeless’” risks deterring U.S and international policymakers from any real effort to help, says Marie-Marcelle Deschamps, an internationally recognized Haitian doctor and humanitarian. “The world is hesitating, and thus isolating Haiti, but this ignores many successful ways that Haitians and international partners have built progress and peace together.”

Type: Question and Answer

Global Policy

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Keith Mines

With the governing structure now collapsing, Haitian gangs “have the country in a stranglehold,” says USIP’s Keith Mines, and that the best path to re-establish stability is “to form a new transitional government that would be more inclusive, that would have better connections to the Haitian people.”

Type: Podcast

Global Policy

View All Publications