At Work Around the World

(Click to enlarge)

Return to Activities Map >>

Haiti

In September 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton asked President Jimmy Carter to undertake a mission to negotiate the departure of Haiti's military leaders, paving the way for the restoration of Jean-Bertrande Aristide as president.


Building Hope

A primary goal of The Carter Center is to promote peace throughout the world. In the early 1990s, Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by the military, and great civil unrest ensued. The Carter Center was there, offering a calm voice amid the disquiet. More recently, the Center has helped fight disease through a historic binational initiative between the Dominican Republic and Haiti to accelerate the elimination of two devastating parasitic diseases from their shared island.

Fighting Disease
Catalyzing Disease Elimination in the Caribbean

In September 2008, The Carter Center, in partnership with the Dominican Republic and Haiti, launched a historic one-year initiative to help the two countries and their other partners accelerate the elimination of two devastating mosquito-borne infections—malaria and lymphatic filariasis—from Hispaniola. As long as lymphatic filariasis and malaria exist on any part of these two nations' shared island, they will threaten the rest of the Caribbean with devastating human and economic consequences.

The initiative stems from a 2006 recommendation of the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication (ITFDE)—a group of 12 global experts on infectious disease—that it is "technically feasible, medically desirable, and would be economically beneficial," to eliminate these two parasitic diseases from Hispaniola. (Read the updated ITFDE recommendation from 2008.) Since then, the binational project has broken new ground in collaborations between these two countries for the betterment of public health on the entire island. (Read the 2008 Carter Center Press Release: Carter Center Launches Effort to Spur Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.)

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of its population living below the poverty line. Serious constraints to efforts to control malaria and lymphatic filariasis in Haiti include: inadequately trained health care professionals;  weak public health infrastructure; and insufficient funds to conduct disease prevention and treatment programming. In addition, the island was devastated by four hurricanes in four successive weeks during the summer of 2008, disrupting health services and providing additional breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread malaria and lymphatic filariasis.

Malaria is a potentially fatal parasitic infection that causes fevers and flu-like symptoms and is endemic throughout Haiti. Testing and treatment for malaria is provided free of charge in Haiti.

Lymphatic filariasis is a debilitating disease that causes severe swelling in the limbs and genitals, which often devastates victims socially, emotionally, economically, and physically. A nationwide survey in 2001 found that lymphatic filariasis affected more than five percent of the population in most of Haiti's communes (counties). Haiti's Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program began annual mass drug administration (MDA) with diethycarbamazine (DEC) and albendazole in 2000, treating approximately 1 million people or 12.5 percent of the 8 million people at risk in 2007 and 2008.  Mass drug administration reached 53 of the most endemic communes in 2008 and aims to reach 78 communes in 2009.

Achieving elimination would improve not only health, but economic opportunity, including agriculture.

Funding for this project is being channeled by the Centers for Development and Health (a nongovernmental Haitian organization) to the Haiti Ministry of Public Health and Population.

Through these efforts, the technical objectives of the binational project have been met: the countries have developed a standard protocol and procedures, including free diagnosis and treatment of malaria; primaquine has been added as a tool for treatment of malaria; and surveillance and use of microscopy to confirm diagnosis of malaria has been intensified.

With support from The Carter Center, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are preparing binational plans to complete elimination of both the diseases from the island. The plan will be completed in late fall 2009.

Read the New York Times Feature: Haiti and Dominican Republic Urged to Fight Mosquito Illnesses Together.

UPDATED OCTOBER 2009

Waging Peace
Monitoring Elections

In 1987, members of the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas, an informal group of current and former leaders from the Western Hemisphere, met to discuss the electoral process in Haiti. A presidential candidate had been assassinated, which threatened to undermine the entire process. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Prime Minister George Price of Belize, and Dr. Robert Pastor, then director of the Center's Americas Program, flew to the island to try to steer the elections back on track. They succeeded at the time, but in December, the military intervened and prevented the election.

In July 1990, the council was invited by then President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and opposition leaders to monitor the election. In this effort, the council joined the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, visited the country several times in advance of the Dec. 15 ballot, and sent an international delegation to monitor the vote. President Aristide won in Haiti's first free and fair election in its history, but less than a year later, he was overthrown in a military coup.

The Carter Center became actively involved in assisting the international community to restore constitutional government to Haiti in September 2001. Visiting the Center in December 1992, former Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and U.N. Secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali discussed possible involvement by the United Nations or Organization of American States in Haiti, and President Aristide visited the Center the next month. President Aristide remained in close contact with President Carter and Dr. Pastor and participated in several discussions at the Center on how to restore democracy to Haiti.

Many of those ideas bore fruit in September 1994, when President Carter was asked by Haitian General Raoul Cédras to help avoid a U.S. military invasion of Haiti. President Carter relayed this information to President Clinton, who asked him to undertake a mission to Haiti with Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell. The team successfully negotiated the departure of Haiti's military leaders, paving the way for the restoration of Jean-Bertrande Aristide as president.

In February 1995, the negotiating team returned to Haiti to assess the country's progress. Their visit focused on the transfer of authority from American-led forces to the United Nations and on preparations for parliamentary and presidential elections. They found signs of progress but warned of pitfalls that could mar the June 1995 elections.

Visiting Haiti during the June 1995 election, The Carter Center found it flawed by technical and administrative problems, and its results were widely disputed. However, he said, "Compared to 200 years of dictatorship and repression, the election was a step out of the past. Whether it will be a step forward or sideways remains to be seen."

The Carter Center was again called on after the 2000 elections. The Caribbean Community  and the Organization of American States led a mission to seek solutions to an impasse on the disputed election results and to develop plans to fortify Haiti's democratic institutions. The Carter Center served as an adviser to the mission. The OAS has continued to serve as the mediator for this dispute, and The Carter Center continues to monitor the evolution of democracy and prospects for development in Haiti.


Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales
Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories was Haiti President René Preval. Learn more about the Carter Center's Americas Program.


Updated May 2006


Election Reports

Assessment Mission to Haiti (March 1995) (PDF)
Report on the Elections in Haiti, June 25, 1995, by Robert Pastor.
 
Assessment Mission to Haiti (January 1995) (PDF)
Report on the Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government's December 1994 mission to assess Haiti's political and economic climate and to explore opportunities to assist with economic development.
 
Final Report: Observing the 1990 Haiti Elections (PDF), released May 1, 1991
At the invitation of Provisional President Ertha Pascal Trouillot, the Provisional Electoral Council, and leaders of the major political parties, the Carter Center's Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government, along with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, monitored the 1990 elections.