Situation of democracy and human rights in developing countries with special reference to Latin America

Situation of democracy and human rights in developing countries with special reference to Latin America(The debate will pertain mainly to the current democratic and human rights situation in Haiti)

DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a form of government in which the right to govern is vested in the citizens of a country or a state and exercised through a majority rule.
Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all citizens, not invested with the power to govern, have equal access to power and the second that all citizens enjoy legitimized freedoms and liberties.
Democracy is indispensable for the protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
The Human Rights situation in Latin America varies considerably country to country. In some, such as Colombia, disappearances, extra-judicial executions and torture have reached epidemic proportions. In others, such as Peru, hundreds of innocent people continue to be in jail, falsely accused of "subversive activities". Yet in others, the main human rights violations concern police brutality, inhuman prison conditions, and violations to economic and cultural rights. If there is one violation that is common to most of the continent, it's impunity, the lack of punishment - and often even of investigation - to those who are responsible for committing the most dire human rights abuses.

Frantically and with great urgency, the Human Rights Foundation in New York drafted a letter beckoning the Inter American Democratic Charter and Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, with the Organization of American States (OAS), to honor the agreement to protect Latin American citizens from militant extremists. In addition, the organization invited Insulza to join its programme, The Inter-American Democratic Charter, as a way to bring global attention to their efforts in improving human rights in the Americas.
Despite the signing of the Inter-American Democratic Charter nearly seven years ago, Insulza repeatedly failed in his responsibility to activate its democratic clause. As a result, the human rights situation in Latin America has fallen into a perilous state unlike any since military dictatorships ruled the continent in the 1980s.
Since the inception of the OAS, tens of thousands of people have been persecuted, detained, tortured and killed because of their political beliefs in the Americas. Thus, their pain and suffering finally led to the design of a mechanism to both prevent the systematic violation of human rights in the Americas and clearly denounce the violators. However, due to the unwillingness to implement democratic clauses individuals throughout the country are paying the price at the cost of their required human rights.
It took Latin America more than 50 years to adopt democratic customs, during which times innumerable violations of human rights went unpunished.
Currently, the Cuban dictatorship, which is rightfully excluded from OAS participation, is not the only perpetrator of persecution, arbitrary detention, torture and even murder in the Americas; offending countries include those with democratically-elected governments, such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The panelists agreed that democratic leaders “govern moderately and responsibly in Brazil, Chile and Peru,” but claimed that “Venezuela’s firebrand, Hugo Chavez and his acolytes in South America continue to tear down democratic institutions to put congresses, courts and the media in the service of their own radical agenda: sowing class warfare, social division and political polarization.”
“In creation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, [the OAS] established the current Inter-American system for the protection of human rights;—even though the commission and the court have conducted very important reports on the status of human rights in member countries, systematic violations of human rights in the continent have continued to occur without an effective effort on behalf of the OAS to stop them,” Halvorssen noted in his letter. “In an attempt to correct this, on Sept. 11, 2001, the OAS approved the Inter-American Democratic Charter as a guide to help formulate rules and principles that would identify and sanction governments that violate human rights.”

• More people live under democratic regimes today than at any other point in history
• At the end of 1998 there were 117 electoral democracies, representing over 61 % of the world's countries and nearly 55 per cent of its population
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 90 general elections were held between 1987 and 1997
• Thirty-eight of the 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa held legislative elections between 1990 and 1994
• Political parties in 34 countries have binding quotas for women in governing bodies and in legislative elections
• Thus far, 144 countries have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The Current agenda focuses in great depth on the current situation of Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country.
• Haiti is the third hungriest country in the world after Somalia and Afghanistan
• The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of Haiti’s wealth
• The poorest country in the western hemisphere
• The world’s fourth poorest country in the world
• Ranks 146 out of 173 on the United Nations Human Development Index
• Has a life expectancy of 52 years for women and 48 for men
• Adult literacy is about 50%
• Unemployment is 70%
• 85% of Haitians live on less than $1 U.S. per day.
• Haiti ranks 38 out of 195 for under five mortality rate.
In addition, coverage of issues in Haiti has often been accompanied by amazing media distortion leading to effects such as minimal or no coverage of problems and massive human rights violations during dictatorial regimes, while demonizing the one democratically elected leader. The extremities of the dictatorships had also led to militant groups that were pro-Aristide.
Such groups also committed violent acts especially in response to pressures from rebel and opposition group Human rights group, Amnesty International also notes that some of the rebel leaders have been convicted of gross human rights violations in the past. “Rebel leaders include notorious figures such as Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune, convicted of gross human rights violations committed a decade ago. Their forces are reported to include a number of former soldiers implicated in human rights abuses in the Central Plateau region of Haiti over the last year.”
It seems that the selective nature of human rights reports came from within Haiti as well. As well as the bleak picture Madre has highlighted, it appears that some Haitian human rights groups themselves have had an anti-Aristides agenda.

A BROKEN COUNTRY
Haiti is a country in which nearly everything needs help. The unsettled political situation and sinking economic vitality, exacerbated by the U. S. embargo since autumn 1991, has left Haiti in disarray. In Port-au-Prince and other built-up areas, electricity is produced but 10 hours a day, and water (non-potable) is available about one hour a day. Garbage is collected intermittently, and transportation is difficult.
Public transportation is unreliable, and although seemingly chaotic to people experienced with modern mass-transit, the brightly colored jitneys or tap-taps (buses) work well enough to service Haiti's limited infrastructure. Roads throughout the nation are in disrepair to the extent that vehicles cannot negotiate the potholes without suffering damage to tires and suspension, and the embargo has ensured that repair parts are out of reach. While there are no apparent cases of starvation, there is malnutrition, and deaths among the very young can be traced to sanitation, diet, and a lack of available medical care and pharmaceutical products.

POLITICS AND RELIGION
Elections have not been held routinely, and political parties are not well-organized. The parties provide a focal point for galvanizing support around a charismatic personage. Real power has often centered on the country's leader and a small elite group who have used a system of counterbalances to prevent a coup. A continuing source of political influence in Haiti has been religion. With a long history of dictatorship and poverty, the masses have depended on religion for help. Although approximately 95 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, a vast majority of Haitians also practice Voodoo as an extension of their African heritage and culture. Political leaders have often taken advantage of the Roman Catholic pulpit, or the black magic of voodoo, to help influence the masses.
Religion, with its juxtaposition of traditional Catholicism and voodoo, has played a key role in the maintenance of power in Haiti. The Roman Catholic Church, enjoying a large percentage of popular participation, has often encouraged peace and acceptance. It is argued that the church has supported the elite in some cases, preaching politics from the pulpit.
Through the Duvalier era, the Catholic Church accommodated the dictatorship. After Francois Duvalier attempted to work with the Church, he finally expelled the Jesuit Order and recruited loyal Tonton Makout priests. "The ascendance of makout priests to positions of authority means that injustices were committed against those who were not aligned with Duvalier politically." Leadership posts went to Duvalier supporters. Also within the country, there has been a strong influence of "liberation" theology which has encouraged radical change in the political system of the country.
Today the politicalization of religion in Haiti is best personified in the Reverend Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but there are other examples. After the February 16, 1993, sinking of the ferry boat Neptune, Aristide supporter Bishop Willy Romelus used a funeral Mass for the 600-900 victims of the disaster as a political rally. Romelus presided over 2,500 Haitians chanting, "Aristide or death!" His target was the current military government. He was allegedly attacked by right-wing demonstrators as he left the church services attended by UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) observers. However, some observers suggest that this was staged by Romelus to discredit the military-backed government.
THE HAITIAN ARMED FORCES
The military has traditionally been a critical factor for maintaining power within Haiti. In the recent past, Haitian defense expenditures have risen from $14 million in 1990 to $21 million in 1991, about 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product.
The armed forces and security forces of about 8,100 active duty personnel (900 officers and senior noncommissioned officers, 7,200 enlisted) include some 6,200 in the army, a small navy and air corps of around 300 people each, plus about 1,300 civil police in Port-au-Prince, and a handful of other security specialists related to fire fighting, customs and immigration. Working under the 1987 Constitution, the Minister of National Defense is also the Minister of the Interior. The Commander-in-Chief of the Haitian Armed Forces (FAD'H) is appointed by the President and has operational control over all of these critical public safety and military functions.
The FAD'H is organized into nine military departments and the Metropolitan Region (Port-au- Prince) to reflect the geographic regions of the country. Command of the FAD'H is centralized in the General Staff Headquarters and in the nine department headquarters. Each department is divided into districts which correspond to company areas of responsibility. Because the FAD'H has administered the nation at the departments as well as at the rural communal section levels, the military has traditionally enjoyed great influence over the daily activities of the Haitian people.
The Haitian Army has depended on foreign arms imports. The result is an arsenal of old and ineffective equipment from many countries, such as five V-150 light armored vehicles (most mobile and effective system in the FAD'H), plus assorted small arms and mortars (e.g., two 90-mm guns and three 20-mm machine guns). The air corps has but two dozen varied fixed-wing aircraft and about eight helicopters (usually inoperative) representing no serious threat in the Caribbean. However, these limited systems give the armed forces sufficient clout to maintain internal security, their traditional role.
The balance of power in the Haitian experience has been designed to maintain complete power in a single person, supported by the military. This domination by power not only has required ensuring security within the state (control of the masses), but also maintaining power bases within the establishment infrastructure to make sure that the dictator did not encounter power centers he could not control.

SOLUTIONS FORM THE UNITES NATIONS:
The Security Council welcomes progress in consolidating stability in Haiti, stresses the need for security gains to be accompanied by social, economic development
The Security Council today welcomed the progress towards stabilizing Haiti, but reiterated the need for security to be accompanied by social and economic development as a way for that poor Caribbean nation – imperiled by natural and manmade disasters throughout most of its history -- to achieve lasting stability.
In a statement read out by Council President Claude Heller (Mexico), following a day-long debate on the situation in that country, the Council urged the Haitian institutions to intensify their efforts to meet the population’s basic needs, and to work together to promote dialogue, the rule of law and good governance.
The Council reaffirmed the need for the upcoming elections for the renewal of one third of the Senate to be inclusive, free and fair, and called on all political actors in Haiti to ensure they were held in a peaceful atmosphere.
Welcoming the valuable continuing support of donors, the Council urged them to make available the additional technical and financial assistance required by the Haitian Government to meet the country’s immediate humanitarian, early recovery and reconstruction needs, while laying the foundations for sustainable economic and social development. In that connection, it recognized the vital importance of the high-level donor conference on Haiti to be hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., on 14 April.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Haiti, Hédi Annabi, who stressed that sustained international engagement was critical to enabling Haiti to take advantage of a unique moment of opportunity. The country now had its best chance in decades to break from the destructive cycles of the past and move towards a brighter future. While it was a difficult environment in which to ask for further assistance, he acknowledged, there was a compelling logic for making an additional effort that would be relatively modest in absolute terms, but which could make a critical difference in securing the investments made to date and preventing the major costs that would be associated with any renewed decline or disorder.

The international community had made a remarkable contribution in providing opportunity for Haiti, and its Haitian counterparts were today showing a clear determination to seize that chance, he said. Hopefully, with the Council’s support, that partnership would be sustained to enable the efforts made to date to reach fruition and place Haiti firmly on the path towards a better future. Haiti might be at a crossroads, at a turning point between risk and renewal, as several speakers suggested, but among the member countries of the Inter-American Development Bank, it was one of the most vulnerable –- with the highest poverty rates and some of the most challenging indicators in terms of access to housing and basic services, the Bank’s General Manager of the Department of the Caribbean Countries told the Council. She noted that some 7.5 million Haitians lived below the poverty line, even before the multiple crises of 2008. However, the 2008 food and oil price shocks had provoked riots, which had pushed more Haitians into extreme poverty. Last year had turned out to be exceptionally difficult, even considering Haiti’s turbulent history. The events of 2008 had focused efforts on disaster relief, but it was time to re-launch the Government’s growth and poverty reduction strategy, and a renewed partnership with donors. That was the purpose of the forthcoming 14 April conference at the Bank’s headquarters, and the Bank was pleased to host it. Mission Chief for Haiti of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Haitian authorities would seek an additional $125 million in budget support and about $700 million in project financing at the donor conference next week to help close the $50 million budget gap and finance critical investment projects. She urged donors to provide that much-needed financing. Failure to do so could deter investment projects needed to create jobs and raise living standards. In the past five years Haiti had made great strides in macroeconomic management in partnership with IMF, she said. Despite devastating hurricanes and high food prices last year, Haitian authorities had maintained macroeconomic stability and remained on track under the poverty reduction and growth facility programme. But those hard-won gains remained fragile and the global crisis was affecting trade and fiscal links. IMF had stepped up efforts to help the country respond to both the global financial crisis and last year’s hurricanes.
United States, saluting MINUSTAH’s bravery, said the Mission had made progress towards consolidating stability and security, including strengthening the national police. It had achieved important gains in security, which, hopefully, would provide a sound basis for progress in other critical areas. MINUSTAH’s success was impressive, but it was not the whole story; much of the progress made remained fragile, especially after the terrible difficulties of 2008, including the food crisis, hurricanes and storms, and the ongoing global financial crisis. All those factors could imperil Haiti’s security and seriously exacerbate poverty. Much more remained to be done in key areas. Desperate poverty, malnutrition, lack of education and other socio-economic problems still bedeviled Haiti.
Donors at the Washington conference on 14 April should be careful not to view security and development as separate spheres, she stressed, adding that, in fact, the absence of one undermined the other. During the Council’s recent mission to Haiti, members had seen compelling evidence of how poverty and unemployment created an environment conducive to civil unrest and undoing many hard-won gains. The United States was encouraged by advances towards the creation of a professional national police force and would continue to work with MINUSTAH to help expand the facilities at the National Police Academy. In order for Haiti to be secure, it would need its police forces to stand on its own. Efforts to reform the justice sector as a whole must be intensified and address prison overcrowding and the rule of law throughout the country.
That was particularly important in terms of curbing drug trafficking, where real progress was vital, she said, adding that the United States would increase support for the counter-narcotics efforts of the police. The Haitian Government should take advantage of the Hope 2 legislation passed by the United States Congress in 2008, as it could open a huge window of opportunity for Haitian market access. As for elections, they must be free, fair and inclusive, and all voices must speak and be heard. There was a need to deepen common efforts to support the country in its fragile transition. Haiti stood at a crossroads, a turning point between risk and renewal, towards democracy that should grow deeper roots, and, hopefully, towards economic progress for all.

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED:


• What are the possible ways through which your country could help the situation of the lack of democracies in countries in different parts of the world?
• What are measures taken to overcome the violation of human rights?
• What are the possible solutions to help the Haiti situation?


REFERENCE:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25232&Cr=Haiti&Cr1
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30514&Cr=haiti&Cr1=
http://www.amnesty.org/en/ai_search?keywords=Haiti&op=Search&form_id=search_theme_form&form_token=d31126fef7a018f99d243fbf3d891f26