World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

WORLD REPORT 2011On July 26, 2010, Haiti’s government, with UN support, established an independentcommission of inquiry into the HNP’s violent response to a prison uprising inLes Cayes just days after the earthquake. The GOH called for the commissioninquiry after the New York Times published an in-depth report, which claimed thaton January 19, 2010, UN and HNP officers circled the prison to prevent a massiveoutbreak after its 400 detainees began to riot due to worsening conditions afterthe quake, and that HNP officers stormed the prison. Details of the event are notindependently confirmed, but the Times estimated that 12 to 19 inmates died andup to 40 were wounded. The commission had not completed its report at thiswriting.Access to Education and Child LaborPrior to the earthquake only about half of primary school-age children in Haitiattended school. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that theearthquake damaged or destroyed almost 4,000 schools and that 2.5 million childrenexperienced an interruption in their education. Schools resumed severalmonths after the earthquake; however, many experienced a sharp drop in enrollment.In 2009 the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery estimatedthere were from 150,000 to 500,000 child domestic workers in Haiti, called“restaveks.” Restaveks are children, 80 percent of whom are girls, from lowincomehouseholds sent to live with other families in the hope that they will becared for in exchange for them performing light chores. These children are oftenunpaid, denied education, and physically and sexually abused. The UN and civilsociety organizations warned that unaccompanied minors and orphans, whoincreased in number after the earthquake, are vulnerable to this form of forcedlabor.Some groups have also raised concerns about improper processing of inter-countryadoption in violation of domestic and international standards.250