Haiti poses challenges for CARICOM
02-21-2006
by Sir Ronald Sanders
The victory by Rene Préval in Haiti’s presidential elections poses challenges for the member countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on Small States in the global community. Reponses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com
After the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused the United States of orchestrating his removal and forcing him into exile in February 2004, CARICOM, as a group, declined to recognise the interim government of Mr. Gerard Latortue.
It was well known that the regional grouping was divided on how to treat with Haiti. In the end, the view prevailed that the Latortue regime would not be recognised and Haiti would not be allowed access to the councils of CARICOM.
Preval’s election victory changes all that and CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington is reported to have said: “We are ready to receive Haiti back into the institutions of the Caribbean Community." But, he added, “We will now sit with Haiti to discuss the conditions of its re-entry into CARICOM."
Importantly, Mr Carrington drew attention to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which includes provisions for the Caribbean Single Market (CSM) to which Haiti is not a signatory.
He said: “"We now have to sit with Haiti on this and other issues, including how are they prepared to come on board with the Revised Treaty and what is the process of acceding to the various elements of the Single Market."
It is Haiti’s accession to the CSM that poses the greatest challenge to CARICOM. Haiti with a population of 8.3 million is the poorest country in the Hemisphere. Its people are 3 million more than the rest of CARICOM combined.
Both its economic and political conditions have caused many of its people to flee from its shores in search of a better life.
While the United States has been the main target of their refuge, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas have also experienced the illegal entry of Haitians into their countries. Recently, groups of Haitian refugees have turned up in Jamaica, Antigua and Dominica.
The election of Mr Préval, by just over 51% of the population, does not speak to a united country. Haiti continues to live on a political powder keg. And, the political manipulation of its desperate economic circumstances is the match that could ignite it any time.
In any event, Haiti is a far way from the establishment of democratic institutions, and even farther away from the kind of widespread respect for them that would underpin their maintenance.
Consequently, CARICOM’s first duty of care to a member of its community is to welcome back into its fold the constitutionally elected government of Rene Préval in elections which have been endorsed by the Organisation of American States.
Having done so, CARICOM should take the lead in the international community in raising the financial and other help that Haiti urgently needs if the unwelcome flight of its people to other countries is to stop.
This will call for a serious diplomatic effort, and may well require the creation of a special CARICOM Task Force devoted to working with the Haitian government and international donor and financial community for at least two years to create the machinery for financing and managing projects in Haiti.
Among these should be health care, particularly HIV/AIDS, education and human resource development, infrastructural projects that would encourage foreign and local private sector investment, and, very importantly, the building of democratic institutions supported by legislation and enforcement machinery.
In this regard, CARICOM might enlist the help of Canada in a joint effort to engage the US government at the earliest opportunity in the peaceful and progressive development of Haiti.
Reports from the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbour, reveal that some 800 US troops landed at a port city in the Dominican Republic, barely 80 miles from the Haitian border, last Thursday. Ostensibly, they are there for “New Horizons”, a military exercise that is to extend for several months.
Nonetheless, the US government has congratulated Mr Préval on his election and State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said “We look forward to working with the new government to help the Haitian people build a better future for themselves."
CARICOM should take the US government at its word, and act as an honest broker to unlock aid for Haiti that has already been approved from the US and other countries and agencies, and to develop a programme for additional aid.
Neither democracy nor development, including the flight of Haitians seeking refuge, will come unless generous assistance is forthcoming.
And, CARICOM countries, however, determined they may be, as they have said, “to end years of isolation and bring Haiti into the Caribbean family to which it belongs by geography, history and common ancestry”, should require considerable advancement by Haiti in its economic and political conditions before it is encouraged to join the Caribbean Single Market.
After all the Single Market goes well beyond a free trade arrangement between groups of countries; it is a deep form of integration that makes a single space of all the countries’ markets and allows for the free movement of goods and services, the right of establishment by nationals of the participating countries and free movement of certain categories of workers.
The countries that enter such a Single Market, while conscious of the importance of “geography, history and ancestry”, must also be alert to the need to fulfill other obligations such as the provision of funding under the Regional Development Fund (RDF) for disadvantaged countries and sectors where Haiti would be amongst the neediest.
Also, it may be an opportune time for CARICOM countries to revisit the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to create principles of democracy, rights, and obligations to which every member state must adhere as a basis for entry, and for continued membership. All CARICOM members, including Haiti, should sign it as a precondition for entering the CSM or remaining a member.
CARICOM countries must do all they can to improve conditions for Haiti as a member of the Caribbean community. And, Haiti must also play its part.
02-21-2006
by Sir Ronald Sanders
The victory by Rene Préval in Haiti’s presidential elections poses challenges for the member countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on Small States in the global community. Reponses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com
After the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused the United States of orchestrating his removal and forcing him into exile in February 2004, CARICOM, as a group, declined to recognise the interim government of Mr. Gerard Latortue.
It was well known that the regional grouping was divided on how to treat with Haiti. In the end, the view prevailed that the Latortue regime would not be recognised and Haiti would not be allowed access to the councils of CARICOM.
Preval’s election victory changes all that and CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington is reported to have said: “We are ready to receive Haiti back into the institutions of the Caribbean Community." But, he added, “We will now sit with Haiti to discuss the conditions of its re-entry into CARICOM."
Importantly, Mr Carrington drew attention to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which includes provisions for the Caribbean Single Market (CSM) to which Haiti is not a signatory.
He said: “"We now have to sit with Haiti on this and other issues, including how are they prepared to come on board with the Revised Treaty and what is the process of acceding to the various elements of the Single Market."
It is Haiti’s accession to the CSM that poses the greatest challenge to CARICOM. Haiti with a population of 8.3 million is the poorest country in the Hemisphere. Its people are 3 million more than the rest of CARICOM combined.
Both its economic and political conditions have caused many of its people to flee from its shores in search of a better life.
While the United States has been the main target of their refuge, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas have also experienced the illegal entry of Haitians into their countries. Recently, groups of Haitian refugees have turned up in Jamaica, Antigua and Dominica.
The election of Mr Préval, by just over 51% of the population, does not speak to a united country. Haiti continues to live on a political powder keg. And, the political manipulation of its desperate economic circumstances is the match that could ignite it any time.
In any event, Haiti is a far way from the establishment of democratic institutions, and even farther away from the kind of widespread respect for them that would underpin their maintenance.
Consequently, CARICOM’s first duty of care to a member of its community is to welcome back into its fold the constitutionally elected government of Rene Préval in elections which have been endorsed by the Organisation of American States.
Having done so, CARICOM should take the lead in the international community in raising the financial and other help that Haiti urgently needs if the unwelcome flight of its people to other countries is to stop.
This will call for a serious diplomatic effort, and may well require the creation of a special CARICOM Task Force devoted to working with the Haitian government and international donor and financial community for at least two years to create the machinery for financing and managing projects in Haiti.
Among these should be health care, particularly HIV/AIDS, education and human resource development, infrastructural projects that would encourage foreign and local private sector investment, and, very importantly, the building of democratic institutions supported by legislation and enforcement machinery.
In this regard, CARICOM might enlist the help of Canada in a joint effort to engage the US government at the earliest opportunity in the peaceful and progressive development of Haiti.
Reports from the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbour, reveal that some 800 US troops landed at a port city in the Dominican Republic, barely 80 miles from the Haitian border, last Thursday. Ostensibly, they are there for “New Horizons”, a military exercise that is to extend for several months.
Nonetheless, the US government has congratulated Mr Préval on his election and State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said “We look forward to working with the new government to help the Haitian people build a better future for themselves."
CARICOM should take the US government at its word, and act as an honest broker to unlock aid for Haiti that has already been approved from the US and other countries and agencies, and to develop a programme for additional aid.
Neither democracy nor development, including the flight of Haitians seeking refuge, will come unless generous assistance is forthcoming.
And, CARICOM countries, however, determined they may be, as they have said, “to end years of isolation and bring Haiti into the Caribbean family to which it belongs by geography, history and common ancestry”, should require considerable advancement by Haiti in its economic and political conditions before it is encouraged to join the Caribbean Single Market.
After all the Single Market goes well beyond a free trade arrangement between groups of countries; it is a deep form of integration that makes a single space of all the countries’ markets and allows for the free movement of goods and services, the right of establishment by nationals of the participating countries and free movement of certain categories of workers.
The countries that enter such a Single Market, while conscious of the importance of “geography, history and ancestry”, must also be alert to the need to fulfill other obligations such as the provision of funding under the Regional Development Fund (RDF) for disadvantaged countries and sectors where Haiti would be amongst the neediest.
Also, it may be an opportune time for CARICOM countries to revisit the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to create principles of democracy, rights, and obligations to which every member state must adhere as a basis for entry, and for continued membership. All CARICOM members, including Haiti, should sign it as a precondition for entering the CSM or remaining a member.
CARICOM countries must do all they can to improve conditions for Haiti as a member of the Caribbean community. And, Haiti must also play its part.
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