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.