Sitting Senator shot by police in protest against election fraud
More than 50,000 were in the streets for a protest against election results they deem fraudulent.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) – Sitting Senator Steven Benoit was taken to the hospital after police opened fire on a protest against election fraud that had, beforehand, been proceeding non-violently.
Injuries sustained by sitting Senator Steven Benoit and former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse, who finished third in the preliminary election results.
Benoit was injured in the head by the gunfire of possibly rubber or real bullets. Witnesses say real rounds were being used. He was among more than 50,000 who protested against election results. The senator and presidential candidate was taken to the hospital.
Benoit accepted his defeat in the October 25, 2015, elections but like more than a dozen other candidates, believe the totalitarian ruling party of President Michel Martelly had engaged in massive fraud.
Horse shot by police after being dismounted by former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse
Another candidate, a popular opposition presidential candidate, who may be the greatest victim if the fraud decried had actually occurred, is former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse. He was dismounting a horse during the protest when witnesses say police shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas at him.
The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of Pierre Louis Opont on Tuesday rejected calls for transparency requested by candidates, human rights and election observation organizations.
Haitian-American organizations have criticized the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General, Sandra Honoré, and members of the Core Group, for encouraging the Martelly regime to take strong measures against citizens protesting against the validity of the results.
The Core Group includes the ambassadors of the United States, France, Canada, Spain, Brazil and European Union. It is led by the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti that has employed a Barack Obama – Hillary Clinton foreign policy that began by propping up a musician named Michel Martelly in 2010.
With the Core Group’s support, Haiti’s young democracy went from one of more than 5,000 elected officials nationwide in 2010 to a totalitarian regime ruled and dictated by one in 2015.
Fedora Mathieu wins the René-Lubien Prize
Mrs. Fedora Mathieu who was born in Port-au-Prince, but has lived in Quebec since 2005 won the Prize René-Lupien annual award for an excellent master's thesis whose subject-matter is of interest to the French-speaking community in Canada. The thesis, which must be drafted in French, may be either in the field of sciences, or humanities.
Titled " The implementation of the law for the creation of housing by non-government humanitarian worker following a disaster: the Haiti case”, Mathieu’s thesis, benefited from the financial support of the prestigious Gordon F. scholarship. Its objective was to analyze the relevance of non-governmental, humanitarian worker and their legal obligations regarding business and social issues, following the earthquake of 2010. According to one of the evaluation reports, the thesis provides evidence of an "excellent understanding of the stakes, the situation, and the problems connected to the lack of legal supervision for the activities of these non-governmental, humanitarian workers. The document also possesses remarkable literary qualities, according to one of the evaluators: "I have rarely read a master's thesis so well written. The methodology is rigorous, the plan is very well followed and the organization of ideas is excellent. "
Mrs. Fedora Mathieu is the recipient of the Medal of the Bar of Paris as well as numerous other honors for her academic achievements.
HL / HaïtiLibre
Syrians coming from Haiti arrested: Three Syrians were arrested with false Greek travel documents last Saturday. Police advises vigilance and an increase in security
SIMPSON BAY - The police have arrested three (3) men, who tried to enter the country on Saturday; November 14th, using false documents.
The men in custody are believed to be nationals of Syria who arrived at the Princess Juliana International Airport around 7:30 pm on an Insel Air flight originating from Haiti. They were soon after held by airport immigration after it was discovered that the travel documents they presented were false.
The suspects were turned over to the “Back Office” at the PJIA who further investigated the documents and determined that the Greek passports the men were travelling with were indeed false. The suspects are remanded in custody pending further investigation.
In the meantime; the Police is urging members of the community to be vigilant and proceed with caution given the current situation unfolding in France.
Authorities manning critical infrastructures are urged to heighten security measures and remain alert for any suspicious activities or persons. They are also advised to contact the police immediately should they encounter any suspicious activities in these areas. (Police Force Sint Maarten)
Dominicans of Haitian descent turned into ‘ghost citizens', says Amnesty
Amnesty International report says authorities in the Dominican Republic have rendered generations of people stateless, in violation of their human rights
The Dominican Republic has violated the human rights of tens of thousands of people by stripping several generations of citizenship, according to a scathing new report by Amnesty International.
The report details decades of discriminatory practices codified into laws that have turned Haitians and their DR-born children into “ghost citizens”. These stateless people lack identity papers for work, healthcare, schooling or the right to live in either nation on the island.
“With the stroke of a pen, authorities in the Dominican Republic have effectively wiped four generations of Dominicans off the map,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s Americas director.
Since the 1990s, Dominican authorities have created a “legal maze” of bureaucracy to recover their papers, the group said, noting a 2013 court ruling that rendered stateless anyone born in the country to an undocumented foreign parent. The ruling was enforced retroactively to 1929, leaving as many as four generations of Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless and without valid documents.
“The ruling was outrageous,” said Chiara Liguori, Amnesty’s expert on the Caribbean and the author of the report.
“Most of these people have never claimed Haitian nationality,” she said. “Dominicans who’ve never been to Haiti, have no ties there, are now obliged to prove themselves: to say first, ‘Look I’m a foreigner,’ and then apply for naturalization over two years. And to apply doesn’t mean they’ll get it.”
The ruling rendered people stateless even outside the country, prompting protests in New York and international denunciations from human rights groups who say the government is depriving people of basic needs.
“These people have a very strong sense of belonging to this country,” Liguori said. “They want to help and make a contribution. They don’t know what to think of themselves anymore.”
The rights group says these retroactive decisions have created “a continuing cycle of alienation and marginalization down the generations”. Although there are no clear estimates for how many people are stateless, Amnesty estimates the law affects several tens of thousands of people.
In 2012, a UN and EU survey found more than 200,000 people in the Dominican Republican had at least one foreign parent and were of Haitian descent.
Children with at least one Dominican parent are entitled to citizenship, though many struggle to receive recognition.
Yolanda Alcino, a 25-year-old Dominican of Haitian descent, told the Guardian she was registered at birth but has been refused an identity card for the past eight years. The second oldest of nine siblings, she said her family illustrates “the complete, complicated reality” of life in the country – some of her brothers and sisters have papers, others do not.
“It’s hard to find work, we can’t get into school, get my children into school,” she said. “We’re discriminated against, and without education, without work, life is more difficult in almost every way.”
Alcino said that earlier this year the authorities told her that without an identity card she could not register her children or file a domestic violence complaint against their father.
“I can’t get my children their identities because of this,” she said.
The rights group interviewed dozens of people for its 60-page report, including one woman, speaking anonymously, whose daughter was unable to register.
“My daughter does not exist for the Dominican state. She is dead from a civic point of view,” the mother said.
People spoke of prejudice, beatings, work at the bottom of society, and being barred from schools and hospitals. One woman said that because she lacked papers, she had had to become a domestic worker for a wealthy family at the age of 10. The family forced her to work 15-hour days and beat her, she said, declining to use her real name for fear of being fired.
Jessica Profeta, a 14-year-old Dominican-born girl of Haitian descent, said her parents were refused a birth certificate repeatedly, and could not enroll her in school for a lack of papers. When her parents tried to enroll her in a naturalization plan, the line was so long that the office closed before her father reached the doors.
“I would like her to go to the university, to have a better future,” he said.
Programs such as a six-month naturalization initiative are insufficient, Guevara-Rosas said, since they was poorly advertised and demanded a list of papers that many could not supply. The naturalization program, for instance, expired in February and asked for testimony from a midwife or seven witnesses to prove a person was born in the country.
As in the US, undocumented workers are largely relegated to difficult work for paltry pay. Women often cannot find work except as cleaners and servants, and men often find themselves enduring brutal conditions on bateyes – sugar cane farms.
A Guide for the classification of hotels in Haiti
Last Thursday, Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries (MTIC) accompanied by Berthide Noailles, the person in charge of the national firm specialized in classification of the tourist establishments Protourism, launched the first Hibiscus Classification Guide (GCH) in Haiti.
This new reference document realized jointly by the Corporation of the Tourist Industry of Quebec (CITQ) and Protourism, is going to rate Haiti’s hotels according existing criteria held for the next Hibiscus classification campaign planned for the spring of 2016.
The GCH contains 7 main sections corresponding to the various estimated categories: rooms, bathrooms, food, interior decor, exterior of the building, services, on site activities and amenities, and sustainability of tourism.
Secretary Villedrouin mentioned that the quality required from the tourist establishments in welcoming visitors must be worthy for local as well as international tourism. "The visitors must require the nameplate of classification from the operators," supported Minister of Tourism, specifying that the Guide of Classification Hibiscus is available at the ministry for the operators so that they conform as quickly as possible.
It should be noted that the Hibiscus Classification does not take into account the quality of the service offered by establishments. However, through its Management) Training, the MTIC intends to assist the operators in the improvement of the quality of service. An entitled program "Qualicert" will soon be developed for this.
By January, 2016, the criteria contained in the Hibiscus Classification Guide will officially come into effect.