Diplomatic group says two of Moïse’s decrees violate human rights

Some of the members of the Core Group.

The Core Group, diplomats from various countries, labeled two of President Jovenel Moïse’s decrees as abusive and anti-democratic in a statement published Saturday.  

In one of the decrees, published on Nov. 26, the government put up a list of crimes they consider as acts of terrorism and enforced penalties for them. Putting barricades in the streets, carrying an illegal firearm were some of the crimes on the list. 

Some of the penalties for those acts were 30 to 50 years of jail time and a 2 million gourdes fine, about $30,000, to 200 billion gourdes, or about $3 billion.

The Core Group said they don’t view most of the crimes in the decrees as acts of terrorism. In the other decree, Moïse formed the National Agency of Intelligence (ANI) to securitize the country.

“The decree that created ANI gives the agents of this institution quasi-judicial immunity, thus opening up the possibility of abuse,” the Core Group writes in the statement. Source

FIFA appoints committee to take over Haitian football from disgraced ex-president 

Haiti’s former soccer president Yves “Dadou” Jean-Bart. Photo credit: Haiti-Tempo

FIFA has appointed a normalization committee to oversee Haiti’s soccer federation, nearly a month after banning Yves Jean-Bart, the federation’s former president, from the sport for sexually abusing players, including minors. 

Two other members of the federation were banned for being involved in the sexual scandal: Technical Director Wilner Etienne and Nela Joseph, the girls’ supervisor at the training center. FIFA announced the appointment of the normalization committee in a statement published Friday.

Jean-Bart is still running operations even after the ban, the statement read. The normalization committee will run the daily affairs of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), review its statutes, organize and conduct the federation’s upcoming elections and ensure proper financials. Source

PM still hopes diplomatic groups will help fight insecurity 

Haiti’s Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe. Photo credit: Georges H. Rouzier

Haiti Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said he hopes the Core Group, diplomats from various countries, will help Haiti combat its rising insecurity.

“I remain convinced that the Core Group will continue to help us reflect on how to put an end to the abuses by armed groups which sow insecurity, terror and mourning in families,” Jouthe posted on Twitter.

The Core Group has not responded. Jouthe’s tweet comes on the heels of Core issuing a warning to President Jovenel Moïse over his last two decrees. Moise has yet to comment on the warning.

Email me at onz@haitiantimes.com
Onz Chery is a Haiti correspondent for The Haitian Times. Chery started his journalism career as a City College of New York student with The Campus. He later wrote for First Touch, local soccer leagues in New York and Elite Sports New York before joining The Haitian Times in 2019.

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1 Comment

  1. Who is this diplomatic group? and who [do] they think they are to tell Haiti if its law are good, bad or against human rights? Since when did they care so much about Haiti? If they about Haiti, why don’t they donate some farming tractors to cultivate Haiti’s land, plant corn, rice, beans and have caddles farms so Haiti can feed its people instead of buying cheap process hot dogs, rice, chickens, spaggetti, etc from other foreign countries only to give more profits to those foreign countries.

    Putting barracades on the roads of any other country is illegal, it stops kids from going to school, fire trucks from passing through, it stops people from going to work, and most importantly as it stands now, the people committing these crimes simply get away with it claiming that its political or they are protesting, but instead they are just apportunistic thieves stealing from people going from one place to the next. Heck yes these acts should be illegal. Stay away from Haiti’s business and how it manage its law.

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