Law in the Time of Cholera and Earthquakes: Enforcing Rights to Reduce Haiti's Vulnerability

Upon attending the panel on February 22 with Laura Flynn, Brian Concannon, and Paul Miller I realized a lot about the relationship between Haiti and the United States that I had not previously thought about. Laura Flynn painted a vivid picture of what she experienced when she visited Haiti after the earthquake: “a sea of rubble with a plastic band aid over it.” She explained to us that there was horrible infrastructure before the earthquake – and it was made even worse after the thirty-five second disaster. There were buildings that were not destroyed though, and those buildings, the panelists told us, were the big buildings that people put a large sum of money into. It was all the poor housing that fell; there was not enough concrete and rebar from the beginning to hold up these buildings. The earthquake could have been survivable – there have been worse earthquakes in other parts of the world with a much lower death count. But because of the immense poverty, housing was inadequate and already falling apart even before the quake; it was just that no one had the money to live anywhere else.

Another shocking fact for me: two hundred thousand people died because of Human Rights Violations. The government did not enforce zoning and construction laws. The panelists went on to explain that Haiti was – and maybe still is – unable to enforce a wide variety of Human Rights. That is what separates the United States and other wealthy nations from third world countries, or less fortunate nations. The government is unable to enforce child support laws, labor laws, or keep the educational system up to par. Maybe this is in part due to the relationship the United States keeps with Haiti: we fail to respect their rights. Bill Clinton’s trade plan with Haiti pushed Haitians to drop their tariffs and in turn, pushed farmers off their land. Aid policies also forced them off the land: we would give NGO’s American agricultural goods for them to distribute and took away Haitians’ ability to sell and grow their own crops. When I heard this, I was completely shocked and even mortified. What kind of country are we if we cripple the abilities of other countries that we claim to be helping?

And where is all the money we have been sending actually going? Countless governments have promised money, and apparently very few have delivered as of yet. Some of the money is for rebuilding, which has not started yet, and the period for immediate aid is over. Haiti is currently in an in-between stage where no money is helping them. There is a multitude of NGO’s in Port-au-Prince that are controlling where the money goes, and many Haitians have no influence or knowledge of what is going on. It seems as though our democratic government is not actually helping Haiti to grow into their own democratic nation. The panelists told us about the US foreign policy to keep Aristide in South Africa – to keep him quiet? But what are we afraid of? That Aristide will rally supporters that will complain about our help (or lack thereof)? How hypocritical of the United States to set up two Right-Wing candidates to be elected for president in a Left-Wing country, and preventing the vote of the Haitian people to actually count. It infuriates me to think that the United States can have so much power over another nation – and have the power to actually help and improve another country’s situation – but instead choose to cripple them in order to remain in power. It is almost disgusting.