A UN official has called for an immediate arms embargo for Haiti and an intervention force to combat endemic gang violence in the Caribbean state, after the killings of more than 200 gang members in recent months.
William O’Neill, who was appointed in April as an expert on human rights in Haiti, added his voice to growing calls for an international intervention in the country, which has descended into crime-fuelled anarchy since the murder of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Speaking at a press conference at the end of a 10-day trip, during which he met civil society leaders, government officials and victims of gang violence, O’Neill described “a country bruised by violence, misery, fear and suffering”. He said: “It is urgent to take action. The survival of an entire nation is at stake.”
O’Neill said the absence of government was palpable and was affecting people’s access to water, food, health, education and housing. While Haitian authorities faced “immense challenges”, he said, the government had a duty to respond within its limited capabilities.
“Entire neighbourhoods are left to their fate, without access to any public service,” he said.
Incidents of sexual violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, doubled in May, he said, citing credible information received.
A UN report last year found gangs were using sexual violence as a weapon to control communities through fear. In one incident in the capital last July, the report found, at least 52 women and girls were collectively raped.
There has been mounting civil violence between gangs – who control 80% of Port au Prince – and a vigilante movement known as bwa kale (peeled wood, suggesting swift retribution) that has emerged in recent months.
Individuals associated with bwa kale have been responsible for a series of lynchings that have also claimed the lives of non-gang members.
The movement has borrowed familiar images from Haiti’s history – including from its late 18th-century slave revolution – as its influence has grown, with videos showing a conch shell being blown as a call to arms against the gangs. An image of a woman chanting while banging a spoon on a pot has also become a symbol of the uprising.
According to a recent report by the Haitian Centre for the Research and Analysis of Human Rights (CARDH), between 24 April and 24 June this year at least 204 presumed gang members were killed by those associated with bwa kale, sometimes with the complicity of Haiti’s police force.
O’Neill said the bwa kale movement reflected a failure of Haiti’s judicial system. “History has shown that popular justice and its many excesses have never made it possible to resolve violence,” he said.
O’Neill said deploying a specialised international force that would work alongside Haiti’s national police was “essential to restore the freedom of movement”. He said that an embargo on arms, especially those from the US, was crucial, given that no weapons were produced in Haiti.
Several UN officials have called for such a deployment, as did Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, in October last year, but the UN security council has not taken action, opting instead to impose sanctions. Previous armed interventions in Haiti by the US and UN have had a controversial record.
The UN, unwilling to send its own peacekeeping mission, has suggested a multinational force under a security council mandate, but so far only Jamaica has shown an interest in participating.
O’Neill criticised some methods used to repatriate about 176,777 migrants last year, which he said did not comply with human rights standards and violated bilateral migration pacts, singling out the neighbouring Dominican Republic. “I urge the authorities of the Dominican Republic to respect their commitments in this regard,” he said.
O’Neill said he was particularly concerned by reports of organ trafficking and sex trafficking of migrant women and children.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
