Haiti

Victims of Haiti's cholera epidemic have given the United Nations a 60-day deadline to start talks about billions of dollars worth of compensation or face legal action. The UN is accused of negligently allowing peacekeeping soldiers to pollute Haiti's water with cholera.

Legislative and elections were due to take place in January 2012 at the latest, but in spite of an agreement signed in December between the executive and legislative branches to form an electoral commission, there have been no new developments.

Without an inclusive national pact on critical priorities, President Michel Martelly faces the spectre of a failed presidency, and Haiti risks international abandonment. “Governing Haiti: Time for National Consensus”, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the race against time to convince its own people, donors and potential investors that progress and stability are still achievable.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Mr. Nigel Fisher of Canada as his acting Special Representative for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Mariano Fernandez Amunátegui, Special Representative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Haiti, welcomed, in that context, work begun by the country’s President and the President of the National Assembly to organize local, municipal and mid-term legislative elections by the end of the year.

Mr. Martelly said the government had directly received only one third of the aid pledged.
Aid donors needed to co-operate more closely with the Haitian government, he added.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has intensified its support to Haiti following the visit of a technical mission to this Member State.

Haiti must focus on strengthening its rule of law institutions, including its national police and electoral council to consolidate the gains it has achieved in recent years, the United Nations Security Council heard today as it reviewed developments in the Caribbean country.

Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and more than 50 national and international non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives defined today a new roadmap to better coordinate the transition from Haiti’s humanitarian to a long-term development phase, with increased accountability and transparency.