Lowenstein Clinic, Harvard and NYU Human Rights Clinics Call on U.S. Government to Address Haiti Crisis

On February 13, 2021, the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School released a joint statement calling on the U.S. government to denounce actions by President Jovenel Moïse that threaten human rights in Haiti. Signed by the Lowenstein Clinic, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law — three “U.S. based law clinics working in solidarity with Haitian civil society” — the statement expressed concern about President Moïse’s “pattern of conduct to create a constitutional crisis and consolidate power that undermines the rule of law in the country.”

The Clinics’ statement cited President Moïse’s refusal to step down despite reaching the end of his presidential term, the sudden replacement of three Supreme Court Justices, and arbitrary arrests and violence against protesters over the previous week as actions violating the rule of law. These events, according to the statement, followed “years of credible allegations of grave, state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Haiti.”

The three law school Clinics further condemned the “improper pressure that the Trump administration placed on Haitian actors to acquiesce to an unconstitutional electoral process.” They urged the Biden administration to support democracy and human rights by condemning President Moïse’s actions and halting deportations to Haiti.

Read the full statement here.