Haiti's Human Rights Crisis: "No More Time to Lose"

UN Expert Calls for End to Deportations, Greater Accountability, and Urgent Support for Youth

By William O'Neal, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Haiti — Press Briefing, United Nations, New York

After a ten-day visit to Haiti to assess conditions on the ground, UN-designated human rights expert William O'Neal delivered a sobering yet cautiously hopeful assessment of the country's ongoing crisis — warning that the situation remains "dire" and even "catastrophic" while identifying new political will and an incoming international force as potential turning points.

O'Neal opened his briefing with measured optimism. He described seeing territory reclaimed from gang control, a more visible and motivated Haitian National Police presence, and a more unified political leadership following the establishment of a new prime minister and cabinet in February.

But he was quick to emphasize the scale of ongoing suffering. At least 1.4 million Haitians have been forced from their homes — an unprecedented level of internal displacement — with many living in makeshift camps lacking access to healthcare, clean water, sanitation, food, schooling, or adequate shelter. Sexual violence is rampant in these sites.

"As one young girl told me," O'Neal recounted, "young people in Haiti face many invisible borders in their lives. And for girls, those borders are even greater — discrimination for being girls, for living in gang-controlled neighborhoods, and for being poor."

O'Neal estimated that roughly half of all gang members in Haiti are minors under the age of 18, many of whom were coerced into joining under threats of violence or rape, or who joined simply because they had no other options.

He described interviewing former gang members as young as 12 and 14. One had been a street child — begging and stealing to survive — when a gang member approached him with an offer of a hot meal a day and a few dollars a week. "Of course that's better than what I have now," the boy had said.

The gangs themselves, O'Neal argued, are not ideological movements. "We're not talking about Hezbollah or Hamas," he said. "They're a couple thousand, half of them teenagers, almost entirely dependent on weapons flowing in primarily from the United States. They don't have a vision for Haiti. It's money, crime, drugs, and power."

Their so-called governance in areas they control amounts to "sheer terror and force" — with accused informants killed, those trying to flee beaten, and girls used as sexual slaves, cooks, and domestic workers.

O'Neal outlined what he described as a necessary three-part approach to dismantling gang power:

1. A stronger international force. The new Gang Suppression Force (GSF), transforming from the earlier multinational security mission (MSS), is expected to begin new deployments in early April, reaching its full contingent of approximately 5,500 personnel — both uniformed and civilian — by September. O'Neal noted that the previous Kenyan-led force, while showing some successes, never reached even half its allocated strength of 2,500, lacked adequate vehicles, spare parts, and air support, and was ultimately unable to sustain gains.

2. Targeted sanctions. The UN Security Council has sanctioned some of the politicians and oligarchs who funnel money and weapons to gangs, but O'Neal called for more. "You strike at the gang's source of money and support," he said.

3. Enforcing the arms embargo. Most of the weapons supplying Haitian gangs originate in the United States. O'Neal argued that if the flow of guns were stopped, "the gangs would literally run out of bullets and dissipate."

Perhaps the most consistent theme across O'Neal's briefing was the need to invest urgently in young people — both those already involved with gangs and the broader youth population at risk.

He recommended expanding rehabilitation and reintegration centers for children associated with gangs, pointing to an existing facility in Port-au-Prince and a larger former agricultural college in Lac Kay capable of housing 200 to 300 young people with classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, and cafeterias — "ready to go," he said.

For the broader youth population, O'Neal proposed the creation of a Haitian Youth Corps — a state-run program providing training, employment, a modest salary, and "a stake in building their country." He noted that Prime Minister Conille's own father had headed Haiti's first disarmament and community violence reduction commission in 1995, and that the prime minister expressed strong personal commitment to youth programs as a way to prevent gang resurgence.

O'Neal also called for greater investment in psychosocial support, noting that "years of violence have shredded the social contract" and that Haiti's own psychologists, social workers, and community leaders could be mobilized to support victims, promote reconciliation, and rebuild trust.

O'Neal expressed serious concern about the use of drones in police operations, conducted both by the Haitian National Police and a private American security firm, Vectus International, operating under contract with the Haitian government. While acknowledging the difficulty of operating in gang-controlled areas, he noted that bystanders have been killed and injured, and that under international human rights law, lethal force is only permissible in limited circumstances — as a last resort or when lives are in imminent danger.

"If all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail," he said, urging authorities to equip police with better tools — vehicles, night-vision equipment, protective gear — that would allow for operations aimed at arrest rather than aerial targeting.

He also described prison conditions in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince as "inhuman and degrading," with adults and children held together in severely overcrowded and unsanitary facilities. He noted that 82% of those detained in Haitian prisons have never been convicted of any crime. While some progress has been made — including hearings that led to the release of children held on minor charges — he said far more needs to be done, far faster.

On the question of deportations — including the Trump administration's move to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an estimated 300,000 to 350,000 Haitians in the United States — O'Neal was unequivocal.

"No one should be forcibly deported to Haiti now, from wherever they are," he said. "The conditions do not allow for a safe, dignified return."

With 6.5 million Haitians already acutely food insecure, healthcare systems severely degraded, and 1.4 million internally displaced, he said it was simply not viable to absorb a large-scale influx of returnees. "I just don't see how you could take in another two to three hundred thousand from anywhere and see that they could have even a remotely dignified survivable living condition."

He noted that the human rights situation is significantly worse now than it was when TPS was originally granted, and urged governments worldwide — including those of the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Turkey, all of which have been deporting Haitians — to halt such actions.

When asked about colleagues facing sanctions and threats for their human rights work — including UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has faced pressure over her reporting on Gaza — O'Neal expressed solidarity but noted that his deepest concern was for Haitian human rights defenders and journalists working on the ground.

"Haiti is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist," he said. Just days before the briefing, two Haitian radio journalists had been kidnapped by a gang, their whereabouts unknown. Many of O'Neal's longtime colleagues in the country's human rights community receive regular death threats.

Despite the gravity of his assessment, O'Neal closed on a note of carefully grounded hope — pointing to the new political leadership, the incoming international force, a more empowered police, and the resilience of the Haitian people themselves.

"The gangs at the end of the day are not that powerful," he said. "Once you show there's someone more powerful than you are, I hope they surrender. Lay down your arms and we could get going on rebuilding the country."

He closed with a Haitian Creole proverb: Kenbe pa lage — Stay strong. Do not give up.

"Haitians never give up," he said. "They certainly have reason to — much more than I do. Let's see. But I think we're in a place now where the next few months are going to be crucial. And I think it can turn around."

William O'Neal is the United Nations Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti. This article is adapted from his press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.

---