The past week was held in Port-au-Prince, a conference to discuss the ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CAT).

"The CAT was tabbled in the Haitian Parliament several years ago, unfortunately, the document has not yet been ratified [...] We followed the regulatory filing protocol, ie deliver the document to the Commission, which has followed up jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is tabling in Parliament," said Urbens Wilbert Dieuveuil, Executive Director of the Citizen's Initiative for Human Rights (ICDH), adding ""In all the last National Assemblies, the ratification of the Convention has always been included in the legislative agenda, but for one reason or another, ratification is still slow to materialize..."

Panelists and participants are of the opinion that the general conditions of of detention in the Haitian prison centers constitute in themselves a violation of the rights of the prisoners and are unanimous in recognizing the interest of the ratification of the CAT. "It's about the life and well-being of everyone. Everyone can one day or another find themselves in prison, or have a relative in prison. Thus, no one is immune to the ill-treatment of prisoners," recalled Romage Morlon, the Director-General of the National Penitentiary.

IH/ iciHaiti