FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  Merrie Archer, Director, Human Rights Programs

Symposium to Address Haiti's Crisis

New York, March 11, 2003 -- On Thursday, March 13, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) will join a number of distinguished panelists at a workshop being hosted by the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC.  Entitled “Haiti: Ideas for Political and Economic Development,” this on-the-record discussion will examine the political, economic and social gridlock that have gripped the country in recent years.  The one-day conference will bring together prominent governmental, non-governmental and private actors from the United States, Haiti and international institutions to, “…(1) assess strategies for addressing Haiti’s governance and institutional problems and (2) explore several strategies for providing humanitarian and development support to Haiti, during the current period of unsettled politics.”  In addition to NCHR’s Executive Director, Dina Paul Parks, other confirmed speakers include: Luigi Einaudi, Assistant Secretary General of the OAS; Brian Dean Curran, US Ambassador to Haiti; Congressman John Conyers; Gerard Johnson of the Inter-American Development Bank; and Jean-Edouard Baker of the Association of Haitian Industries.  

As most Haiti watchers are aware, the situation in Haiti has deteriorated rapidly in recent months, with a sharp escalation in violence and human rights abuses, including considerable intimidation and harassment of human rights advocates, the press and members of the opposition; and a deepening polarization of political factions. 

The latest sign of Haiti’s increasingly unstable political and economic situation is the arrest this past weekend of a leading women’s rights activist, Carline Simon. Just days after she organized a demonstration protesting the government’s handling of the economic situation on the occasion of International Woman’s Day, both Simon and her husband were arrested on charges of alleged illegal weapons possession. (The decline of the gourde and the resulting rise in prices over everyday goods and services, particularly gasoline and public transportation, has chiefly hit the meager budgets of the lower and middle classes.)

"With the international community at a loss for how to proceed on these dual fronts,"  said Paul Parks, "this type of venue allows for a broader cross-section of stakeholders, including Haitian-Americans, to make practical, realistic proposals that will help to break the impasse and bring Haiti out of its morass."

The Symposium will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Federal North Room at the Holiday Inn on Capitol Hill, 415 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.