Haiti

Canada will provide more support to Haiti in its efforts to strengthen security and development, government officials said on Tuesday after meeting visiting Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

Political stability, elections, and international cooperation in Haiti took center stage at the Organization of American States (OAS) Group of Friends of Haiti that met at OAS headquarters to review recent activities, as well as the country's overall political and economic situation and the international community's renewed commitment of support for this Caribbean country.

Le chef de la Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation d'Haïti (MINUSTAH), Hedi Annabi, s'est félicité ce 15 octobre du renouvellement du mandat de la mission pour un an dans le pays.

Haiti has “a remarkable opportunity” to overcome decades of misrule and neglect, but major hurdles remain and the international community must step up its support to ensure the Caribbean country can consolidate its gains, the United Nations Special Envoy and former United States president Bill Clinton said today.

Peacekeepers of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) will heighten their presence at the border with the Dominican Republic as part of a plan to reinforce the zone’s controls and security.

Demand for justice outpaces the much-needed reform of the justice system in Haiti, the independent United Nations expert on the situation of human rights in the small Caribbean nation has underscored.

UN peacekeepers in Haiti should be reorganized to better monitor the country's border areas and coastline, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Thursday. The study, reviewing activities of the UN force known as MINUSTAH over the past six months, recommended that its mandate, which expires October 15, be extended for one more year.

Security has improved dramatically in Haiti, where just a few years ago large areas were controlled by heavily armed gangs that killed, kidnapped and raped with impunity, U.N. police said on Friday. The crime rate in the impoverished Caribbean nation has dropped thanks to a police force that is bigger, more professional and better coordinated with U.N. military and police personnel, U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said.

At a meeting at the OAS called by Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, Chairman of the Haiti Task Force, representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) discussed this week mechanisms for stronger cooperation on Haiti among Inter-American agencies.

Haiti watchers were hoping last week’s Senate run-off election might reduce tension in the impoverished Caribbean nation. But violence during the polling may have dampened those hopes as the country tries to avoid crossing the breaking point.