Yvon Neptune Awarded Damages

[bcholmes]

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 10, 2008—The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) sharply criticized Haiti’s current and former governments for their treatment of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune in its first-ever case involving Haiti. It found Haiti responsible for violating 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights and ordered the government to pay Mr. Neptune $95,000 in damages and costs.

The Inter-American Court’s 60-page judgment, made public June 6, denounced nearly every aspect of the State’s treatment of Mr. Neptune. It found that the Interim Government of Haiti (2004-2006) illegally imprisoned the former Prime Minister in inhumane conditions for two years. The Court found that Haiti’s current constitutional government continues to violate Mr. Neptune’s human rights by inexplicably failing to serve an April, 2007 appeals court decision that would help end Mr. Neptune’s legal struggles. By refusing to serve the order, the Court said Haiti is keeping Mr. Neptune in a state of “absolute judicial insecurity” and perpetuating “an unjustifiable delay in access to justice.”

— Brian Concannon, "Inter-American Court Finds Haiti Is Violating Human Rights of Former PM Yvon Neptune"

Things to note:

First, the "interim government" that oversaw his original imprisonment is the one that Canada, the US and France installed.

Second, in my opinion, recompense should come from those foreign powers rather than the Haitian government. Also: $95K for the two years he spent in jail (time that had a pretty significant effect on his health). Not enough.

Third, I worry that this case will be reduced to "Haiti just has a terrible human rights record." I think a coup attempt against Preval is still a possibility in a few years. This is the sort of story (minus the inconvenient facts) that will be used to justify the coup.

Fourth, our delegation was on its way to meet with Yvon Neptune when the Lovinsky situation became clear.

Comments

[herbmcsidhe.livejournal.com]

Has there been any recent news on the Lovinsky situation?

Good Points

[brian-concannon.livejournal.com]

I think you make several good points. First, on the responsibility of the international community: I completely agree. Canada is especially responsible for Yvon Neptune's persecution, because the government paid NCHR-Haiti/RNDDH over $100,000 to pursue the case against him (see http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/61/29-31.pdf). But the powerful countries make the rules for international justice, and they don't expose themselves to justice for their actions.

We filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission against the U.S. on behalf of Haitian voters who had their democracy stolen in the 2004 coup (see http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_iachr_BAI_IJDH_Yale.htm). We were working on a case against Canada. But the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Basically, the U.S. (and Canada) do not accept the Commission's jurisdiction on these kinds of things. One of our struggles is to make powerful countries accountable to international law.

Second, the amount Yvon received was obviously low in comparison to his suffering. It is, however, high for the Inter-American Court, which shows that the judges were touched by Mr. Neptune's extreme suffering. The Court receives its budget from the OAS member states, who are the ones who pay the judgments. The Court is, I understand, under intense pressure to keep its judgments down.

It is important to note that for Yvon, this was never about the money, it was about restoring his reputation and fighting for justice.

Third, I agree there is a risk that this decision will be used to undermine the constitutional Haitian government. We were reluctant to pursue the case at the IACHR after the restoration of democracy for that very reason. But the government also needs to act democratically to justify support, and it needs to have pressure applied on it to counter the elite/International Community pressure. So we felt that we needed to go ahead with the case.

Fourth: no news about Lovinsky. On Monday he will have been disappeared for 11 months.

Kenbe fem, Brian Concannon

Re: Good Points

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those comments.

And, much more than that, thanks for all the amazing work you do on behalf of Haiti.