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Haiti: Facts, Background, Updates, Articles

Haiti Fact Sheet - March, 2006

The country of Haiti is located in the Caribbean a short distance form Cuba. Haiti shares an island with the neighbouring country of the Dominican Republic. With an area of 27,750 square kilometres Haiti is about one half the size of Nova Scotia or about one-fortieth the size of Ontario.

Haiti is a mountainous country with a population of almost 8 million people largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and survival. Crops include coffee, mangoes, rice, and sugar. There are also some mining and hydropower resources. Haiti acts as a conduit point for some of the cocaine travelling from Colombia to Europe and the USA.

A small percentage of Haitians live in wealth while 80% of the people suffer in abject poverty. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Extensive deforestation during the past century has lead to soil erosion and floods placing addition burdens on the land and its people.

There is widespread unemployment in the country and many lack basic necessities such as potable water. The HIV rate is high, as is the infant mortality rate. Both public health and the economy have become more problematic as dependence on outside sources for food has developed in recent years.

After a revolution by the predominantly slave population, Haiti declared it’s independence from France in 1804. The constitution was established in 1987 and a democratically elected government soon followed. On the two hundredth anniversary of the independence, democracy and constitutional rule was overthrown in February 2004 by a coup. The elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced into exile at that time. Since then, thousands of his supporters have been killed, jailed, or forced into exile. The social and human rights situation has deteriorated in the past two years.


Background information:
Canada Haiti Action Network

Interview with Patrick Elie. Seven Oaks - February 27, 2006 (Canada)

Interview with Patrick Elie by Vancouver Haiti activist Anthony Fenton

University of Miami Law School human rights report (author Thomas Griffin), November 2004

* Statement by Louis Joinet, Haiti expert of the UN Human Rights Commission, November 29, 2005

Extensive archive of articles on human rights in Haiti


There are two excellent articles on the Global Research website:

1) Michael Keefer's "Fraud and Scandal in Haiti's Presidential Election" which places the current elections squarely in the historical context of infringements of Haiti's sovereignty:

2) Stephen Lendeman's “Haiti: René Preval’s Impossible Task”.

posted by Annamarie at 11:26 PM