Haiti

Haiti, the world’s first independent black republic, is challenged by a system of exclusion that favors the mulatto oligarchy of mixed European-African descent who control 95 per cent of the country’s wealth and occupy the highest positions of the state, to the detriment of the majority of the population (around 95 per cent) of mostly African descent. Haiti’s political and economic struggles are intricately linked to its history of Spanish and French colonization, which gave rise to a brutal slave trade. In 1804, Haiti became the world’s first state to be formed through a slave revolt and to permanently abolish slavery. However, the 150-million-franc indemnity imposed by France for recognition of Haiti’s independence impeded Haiti’s development, disrupted state-building and pushed the country into multiple cycles of debts. American influence and intervention, marked by an occupation (1915-1934) and the support for the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986) further stifled the country’s development. The dictatorship also ingrained a political culture of populism and gangs, overwhelming concerted efforts for democratic governance.

The 1987 Constitution symbolized the Haitian’s people’s outright rejection of the Duvalier dictatorship, and promoted democratic values such as direct universal suffrage, press freedom and decentralization of powers. The following decades, however, was marred by coups, violence, foreign military interventions and presidents being exiled with the country vacillating between dictatorship (military rule), democracy, and hybrid regimes. Both terms of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected President, supported by the poorest but opposed by elites, were put to an end, first by a military coup (1991) and later by elite-supported former soldiers (2004). The latter led to the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH). The country achieved some stability during the uninterrupted presidencies of René Préval (2006-2011) and Michel Martelly (2011-16), and despite the devastating 2010 earthquake, made significant humanitarian recovery and progress towards democracy by completing a long postponed electoral cycle in 2017. However, despite efforts to address governance and efficiency challenges through a constitutional reform process initiated in 2021, President Jovenel Moise’s assassination and another severe earthquake have created a power vacuum.

Over the next years, Haiti’s political context is expected to remain volatile. With the Prime Minister currently exercising executive power and a dysfunctional parliament, a return to constitutional order and the holding of elections are of utmost importance. However, the expansion of gangs’ territorial control, intensifying violence, lack of state accountability and weakening of political parties constitute major obstacles impacting all GSoDI attributes. The absence of a consensus on a political roadmap and the state’s inability to contain violence could risk Haiti’s further descent into a political and humanitarian crisis.