Haiti: Briefing and Consultations*
Tomorrow afternoon (22 October), the Security Council will hold an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on Haiti. Special Representative and Head of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) María Isabel Salvador is expected to brief on recent developments in the country and the Secretary-General’s latest report on BINUH, which was circulated to Council members on 15 October. UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell and a civil society representative are also expected to brief.*
Salvador is expected to update the Council on Haiti’s political situation. The Secretary-General’s report covers continuing efforts by national authorities to implement transitional governance arrangements aimed at holding elections and swearing in a new president by February 2026, in line with the 11 March political agreement among Haitian stakeholders facilitated by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). On 18 September, the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) established by the 11 March agreement announced the nomination of seven of nine members of the provisional electoral council that will be tasked with preparing the country for elections. The two seats that remain unfilled are reserved for human rights and women’s groups, which have not yet agreed on their respective candidates.
Meanwhile, the TPC itself has been stymied by corruption allegations against three of its members, who have been accused of attempting to solicit bribes from the chairman of Haiti’s National Bank of Credit in exchange for allowing him to remain in his position. According to the Secretary-General’s report, on 2 October the country’s Anti-Corruption Unit requested the judiciary to pursue criminal charges against the three members, one of whom was scheduled to assume the TPC’s six-month rotating presidency a few days later. Following the Anti-Corruption Unit’s request, eight of the TPC’s nine members signed a resolution that excluded the accused members from the presidency but, controversially, allowed them to remain on the council. Member Edgard Leblanc Fils, who held the presidency at the time, did not sign the resolution, reportedly arguing that keeping the accused members on the council undermined its legitimacy and risked “extending the transition period”. On 7 October, member Leslie Voltaire—who represents the party of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and has not been implicated in the scandal—assumed the rotating presidency.
Regarding the security situation, the Secretary-General’s report says that gang violence has continued in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where the gangs have escalated their attacks on specific neighbourhoods with “strategic value” to consolidate their control over the city. They have also increased their presence on the main access roads to and from the city, generating significant profits through extortion and smuggling operations. Additionally, violence has continued to spread from the capital to other regions with a weaker security presence, including the West and Artibonite departments. In the latter, the town of Pont-Sondé was the scene of an especially lethal attack on 3 October by members of the “Gran Grif” gang, who killed at least 100 civilians and injured 16 others, according to the Secretary-General’s report. In total, BINUH recorded 1,441 murders from June to August, an increase from 1,033 during the same three months last year.
In response to the violence, the Secretary-General’s report says that the Haitian National Police (HNP) has launched large-scale anti-gang operations in several neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince. This was done with support from the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which the Security Council authorised under Kenya’s leadership through resolution 2699 of 2 October 2023 to help Haiti re-establish security in the country and build conditions conducive to holding elections. These operations have achieved some success freeing certain roads and neighbourhoods from gang presence. Security forces, however, still face challenges in sustaining control over the contested areas due to a lack of personnel and financial resources that limit the MSS mission’s ability to scale up its physical presence, which currently comprises about 400 police officers out of an expected total of 2,500.
In this context, the Secretary-General’s report describes ongoing efforts to strengthen technical and operational coordination between the UN and the MSS mission. Such initiatives include the establishment of a “police coordination mechanism” among BINUH, the MSS mission, and the HNP, as well as a standard operating procedure on the implementation of the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on Support to non-UN Security Forces (HRDDP) signed by BINUH and the MSS mission. This progress notwithstanding, the report calls on the international community to “urgently” provide additional financial support to the MSS mission to “ensure its continued deployment and the achievement of its objectives”. (For more information on the MSS mission and its deployment status, see our What’s in Blue story of 29 September on the adoption of resolution 2751 of 30 September, which renewed the mission’s Security Council authorisation for one year).
Russell will address the Council both in her capacity as UNICEF Executive Director and as the designated Principal Advocate on Haiti for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the UN’s high-level humanitarian coordination platform. In her briefing, Russell is expected to update the Council on the country’s dire humanitarian situation. The Secretary-General’s report refers to estimates by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for the period from August 2024 to February 2025, which indicate that nearly half of the country’s population (48 percent) is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, classified as “crisis” or worse conditions (IPC Phase 3 or above). This represents a 4 percent rise compared to the same period last year. Additionally, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country increased by 22 percent from 578,000 to more than 700,000 between June and September, with children representing over half of all IDPs.
At tomorrow’s briefing, there may also be discussion about the latest quarterly update of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on sources and routes of illicit arms and financial flows in Haiti and on relevant UN activities and recommendations. The Council originally requested UNODC to report to the Council on these issues concurrently with BINUH’s reporting cycle through resolution 2692 of 14 July 2023, and it subsequently reiterated this request in resolution 2743 of 12 July 2024, which most recently renewed BINUH’s mandate. UNODC’s latest report, which was circulated to Council members on 16 October, considers several trends related to the shifting influence of criminal groups and the dynamics of arms trafficking and illicit financial flows in Haiti since the initial deployment of the MSS mission earlier this year. The report highlights an increase in the number of seizures of firearms and drugs, likely as a result of expanding police operations, as well as a strengthening of anti-corruption measures by Haitian authorities. Moreover, the report draws attention to the regional impact of Haitian and transnational organised crime networks profiting from migrant smuggling and drug trafficking routes.
The civil society briefer is expected to focus on Haiti’s human rights situation. The Secretary-General’s report observes that human rights abuses and violations have persisted across large parts of the country, including killings, mutilations, rapes, kidnappings, and the ransacking of private property and social service facilities. While murders and kidnappings have decreased in downtown Port-au-Prince, the report notes that the situation has “significantly deteriorated” in other nearby areas, such as the communes of Ganthier and Gressier. In these and other neighbourhoods under gang control, gang members have continued to show “extreme brutality” against their victims, including public executions and the murder of entire families for alleged collaboration with the police. The Secretary-General’s report notes the situation of children remains “particularly worrisome”, as children continue to be the victims of grave violations—including killings, sexual violence, and attacks on schools—and of trafficking and gang recruitment.
At tomorrow’s briefing, Council members are likely to reiterate their call on Haitian authorities to accelerate the country’s political transition in order to restore democratic governance and hold elections by the professed deadline, stressing the importance of accountability, transparency, and integrity in the TPC’s work and amongst its membership. Council members are also expected to express continued concern at Haiti’s precarious security situation, and some may condemn the 3 October massacre in Pont-Sondé in particular. They may note that the recent decision of the 2653 Haiti Sanctions Committee to designate Elan Luckson—the leader of the “Gran Grif” gang that perpetrated the attack—demonstrates the relevance of the regime, which the Council most recently renewed for one year through resolution 2752 of 18 October. Additionally, some Council members may welcome the renewal of the MSS mission’s authorisation, while echoing the Secretary-General’s call on the international community to step up its financial support for the mission to allow it to reach its foreseen operational capacity and fully implement its mandate to help national authorities restore security conditions conducive to holding elections.
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**Post-script (22 October, 10 am EST): An earlier version of this story indicated that UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Ghada Fathi Waly will brief at the meeting. After the story’s publication, it was announced that a UNODC representative will no longer brief at the meeting. The story was amended to reflect the change in briefers.