Haiti

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the Security Council to endorse a rapid strengthening of the technical capacity of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to enable it provide better support to recovery efforts following January’s earthquake in the Caribbean island nation.

Earthquake-devastated Haiti should be able to hold elections by the end of the year, U.N. envoy Bill Clinton said on Wednesday, as the impoverished Caribbean nation works to have a legitimate government in place to oversee its multibillion dollar reconstruction.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today named Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet as his Special Representative in Haiti in succession to Hédi Annabi, who died in the earthquake that devastated the impoverished Caribbean country in January.

More than 100 additional United Nations police officers are already on the ground to help Haiti, which was devastated by a massive earthquake last month, following a call by the Security Council for extra forces to support the beleaguered Caribbean nation.

The EU has agreed to send a force of up to 350 police to Haiti, where law and order is precarious following the devastating earthquake.

The First Deputy Prime Minister of the Spanish Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, representing the European Union at the International Conference on Haiti in Montreal, announced this week that the EU will deploy a mission to identify the most pressing needs facing the Caribbean nation.

The Security Council today backed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call to increase the overall force levels of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti to support the immediate recovery, reconstruction and stability efforts following last week’s devastating earthquake.

The collapse of the organization’s headquarters in Haiti during the earthquake on Tuesday appears to have produced a death toll larger than any previously endured by United Nations employees in a single day.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is helping the impoverished Caribbean country prepare for upcoming legislative elections, providing secondary support in logistics, security and raising public awareness while leaving the primary organizing role to the national authorities.

The Organization of American States (OAS), at the request of the President of the Republic of Haiti … has decided to send a long-term Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) to accompany the electoral processes of 2010.