This webinar of Haiti experts will explore the long- and near-term roots of Haiti's crisis and what the international community can and should be doing differently to stand in solidarity with Haitians trying to reclaim their country and foster a transition towards stable and prosperous future.

Headlines in major newspapers bemoan an acute multidimensional crisis in Haiti and celebrate the deployment of a Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, the latest foreign military intervention into the nation whose revolt against enslavement makes it a key fulcrum of the modern human rights order. Often missing from the assessment of Haiti's crisis and the role of intervention is an honest recognition of the role that the international community has played in creating Haiti's instability, usually under the guise of human rights.

This webinar of Haiti experts will (i) explore the long- and near-term roots of Haiti's crisis;  (ii) the chronic pattern of international activity delivered under the label of human rights, humanitarian assistance, and development that has instead systematically undermined human dignity, sustainable development, and sovereign government; and (iii) what the international community can and should be doing differently to stand in solidarity with Haitians trying to reclaim their country and foster a transition towards stable and prosperous future.

Speakers:

Brian Concannon, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)

Brian Concannon is the executive director and founder of IJDH, a U.S.-based NGO that creates pathways to justice and accountability for human rights violations in Haiti. 

Mario Joseph, Director of Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux

Mario Joseph, who has been referred to as “Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer”, has led the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti since 1996.

Rosy August Ducena member of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association and Program Manager for the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).

Rosy Auguste Ducena is Haitian. She is based in Port au Prince. In October 2024 she was the civil society briefer for the UN Security Council session on Haiti.  

Dr. Jemima Pierre, Distinguished Faculty of Arts Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies in the Institute of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ), University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Dr Pierre is Haitian and writes extensively on Haiti. She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Class at the University of Johannesburg.

Moderator

Siobhán Wills, Director of the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University

There will be simultaneous interpretation Haitian Creole/English intepretation.