Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA that seeks to accompany the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, justice and human rights. IJDH distributes information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursues legal cases in Haitian, U.S. and international courts, and promotes grassroots advocacy initiatives with organizations in Haiti and abroad. IJDH was founded in the wake of the February 2004 coup d’etat that overthrew Haiti’s elected, constitutional government. The institute works closely with its Haitian affiliate, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux.

IJDH's "Haiti Asylum Information Project" provides information and analysis for Haitians seeking political asylum or relief from deportation in the U.S.

IJDH and BAI teamed up with Partners in Health and Zanmi Lasante to launch the Health and Human Rights in Prisons Project to improve conditions in Haiti's notoriously miserable prisons.

IJDH and BAI represent victims of political killings, political prisoners and others imprisoned unjustly. Their "impact litigation" approach uses individual cases to force broad-based changes in the Haitian justice system.

IJDH along with BAI continue their involvement in bringing those responsible for the Raboteau Massacre to justice. In May 2008, the BAI delivered $430,000 in court-ordered compensation to the Raboteau victims.

In June, 2008, IJDH won the first-ever Haiti case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in the case of Yvon Neptune v. Haiti".

Haiti is up for review by the U.N. Human Rights Council in the 12th round of the Universal Periodic review in October, 2011. To prepare, IJDH and its partner organization, BAI, coordinated the submission of twelve stakeholder reports prepared by a coalition of grassroots Haitian organizations and international NGOs, drawing attention to human rights violations in Haiti. Included are reports of torture, extreme overcrowding, and lack of healthcare and sanitation in prisons; population displacement, water contamination and pollution related to unregulated foreign extractive industries; forced, violent evictions of displaced people from encampments; and human rights abuses committed by MINUSTAH (UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti), such as acts of sexual violence, and failure to protect displaced people in IDP camps from sexual violence and violent evictions. The reports call on both the government and the international community to incorporate a human rights agenda into post-earthquake rebuilding work.

Board members

• Brian Concannon Jr. Esq., Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.

• Dr Paul Farmer, M.D. Ph.D., Founder, Partners in Health and Professor, Harvard Medical School

• Laura Flynn, MFA, Fellow, Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota and author of "Swallow the Ocean: A Memoir".

• Ira Kurzban, Esq., one of America’s pre-eminent refugee lawyers.

• Bryan Stevenson, Esq., founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, professor of Clinical Law, NYU School of Law[[Image:]]

• Irwin Stotzky Esq., Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law, Director, Center for the Study of Human Rights

Collaborators

• The Center for Justice and Accountability
• Harvard Law School: Human Rights Program
• Seton Hall Law School: Immigration and Human Rights Clinic
• TransAfrica Forum
• University of California, Hastings Law School: Human Rights Project for Haiti
• University of San Francisco: Center For Law & Global Justice
• Northeastern University School of Law
• Yale Law School: Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic

External links

• IJDH Home Page
• Haiti JusticeBlog
• Video of Brian Concannon and Bolivar Ramilus
• Video of Brian Concannon

Articles by IJDH and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux

• "Change Haiti Can Believe In"
• "Disturbing the Peace in Haiti and New Orleans"
• "My Rosary is My Only Weapon"
• "Baseless Arrests Continue"
• "The Question Not Asked: Paul Wolfowitz, Haiti and the World Bank"
• "Haiti, Minustah and Latin America: Solidaridad?"
• "Haiti Needs Justice, Not Charity"