II. Five key aspects of the human rights situation in Haiti

22. The Committee also expressed concern about the following matters: incorporation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights into national law and its applicability in Haitian courts; the small budget assigned to the Office of the Ombudsman and the shortage of information on the implementation of its recommendations; gender equality; discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; the withdrawal from the parliament’s agenda of the bill to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; the Criminal Code’s definition of torture, which does not include psychological torture; violence against women, in particular rape; human trafficking, especially of child domestic workers; the situation of persons deprived of their liberty, especially those in prolonged pretrial detention; the dilatoriness and passive stance of the judicial system; interference by the executive and legislative branches in judicial decisions and the weak operating capacity of the High Council of the Judiciary; and the ongoing forced evictions of persons living in refugee camps (CCPR/C/HTI/CO/1, paras. 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11–18).

Link to full text of the report: Report-SRHaiti-2015-eng