Гаити: Құлдықтан қарызға дейін, құқық бұзушылық тарихы

Haiti's Constitution and written laws meet most international human rights standards. In practice, many provisions are not respected. In 1697, Spain formally ceded to France control of the part of the island of Hispaniola that would become Haiti, naming it Saint Domingue. Slavery in Saint Domingue, France's most lucrative colony, was known to be especially brutal, with a complete turnover of the slave population due to death every 20 years. According to the historian Laurent Dubois, between 5 and 10 percent of slaves died every year due to overwork and disease, a rate that outpaced births. The dead were replaced by new slaves from Africa. In 1791, what would become known as the Haitian Revolution began. Predominantly a slave revolt, Haitians finally won their freedom and independence from France in 1804. In 1825, France's King Charles X threatened to invade Haiti unless it paid an "independence debt" of 150 million francs to reimburse France for the loss of its slaves and land. The debt was later reduced to 90 million francs but it was not until 1947 that Haiti had paid off what many have regarded as an immoral and illegal debt. To pay this, Haiti had to borrow money from and pay interest to French banks. "We're talking about 200 hundred years of this cycle of debt that Haiti has gone through, which of course has devastating consequences on the capacity of the state within the country," Haiti historian Laurent Dubois has said. The country's poverty made it vulnerable throughout its history to political instability and human rights abuses both by Haitian state officials and foreign interventions. In 1915, following a coup that led to the mob killing of Haitian President Vibrun Guillaume Sam, United States sailors and marines landed in order to protect U. S. interests in the country. The occupation would last until 1934. "Following restoration of order, a treaty providing for United States control over Haitian finances, customs, police, public works, sanitation, and medical services were concluded with the client Haitian government," according to the Navy Department Library. During the occupation roads and other public works projects were built by the corvée labour—forced, unpaid work—of Haitian peasants. Upon his return to the presidency, Aristide disbanded the army. Survivors of the 2018 Lasalin massacre allege that the PHTK, ruling political Party headed by Jovenel Moïse, were responsible for the orchestrated attack and mass murder of civilians. Schools and other community buildings were also targeted. U. S. A. Government involvement in Haiti is on going.

In 1957, François Duvalier, known as "Papa Doc", became president of Haiti, ushering in a period of human rights abuses. An estimated 30,000–60,000 people were killed in the 30 years Haiti was under the rule of Duvalier and his son and successor Jean Claude Duvalier, known as "Baby Doc". In 1959, François Duvalier formed a paramilitary force known as the Tonton Macoute, named after a mythic Haitian character who kidnapped misbehaving children, carried them off in a bag and ate them for breakfast. Duvalier authorized more than 10,000 Tonton Macoute, organized in 500 sections across the country, to maintain complete control over the population. "The macoutes were Papa Doc's version of brownshirts and the Waffen SS, except that their usual uniform was blue jeans, T shirts, sunglasses, and they carried clubs or pistols," wrote journalist and author Herbert Gold in Best Nightmare on Earth: A Life in Haiti. "They were loyal only to Papa Doc. In return, they could rob, steal, extort, torture and murder at will." The Tonton Macoute continued to openly terrorise the population until they were officially disbanded after Jean Claude Duvalier was forced from the presidency and went into exile in 1986. To this day, there is still no guarantee for lawyers' immunity in Haiti, as would seem to be suggested by the 2009 unconstitutional arrest without warrant of human rights defender Osner Fevry, and the arrest in 2013 of Andre Michel, a lawyer critical of the government.

Although the Constitution mandates an independent judiciary and the right to a fair trial, prolonged pretrial detention remains a serious problem. According to the Centre, the majority of countries in the world have percentages ranging between 10 and 40 percent of such prisoners; Haiti's estimated 71 percent is one of the highest in the world.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally has respected these rights. excuses a husband for murdering his wife and her "accomplice" ("complice") if the wife is found in an adulterous affair. The Haitian government has a Ministry of Women's Affairs, but lacks resources to address issues such as violence against women and harassment in the workplace.

In addition to suffering from chronic malnourishment and a lack of educational opportunity, many Haitian children also suffer physical abuse. The practice meets formal international definitions of modern day slavery and child trafficking, and is believed to affect an estimated 300,000 Haitian children. The number of CDW (Child Domestic Workers) in Haiti, defined as 1) living away from parents' home; 2) not following normal progression in education; and 3) working more than other children, is more than 400,000. 25% of Haitian children aged 5 to 17 live away from their biological parents. Restaveks are unpaid and have no power or recourse within the host family. Unlike slaves in the traditional sense, restaveks can run away or return to their families, and are typically released from servitude when they become adults; however, the restavek system is commonly understood to be a form of slavery.