PHR’s work in Haiti began after the coup in 1991, when it was discovered that Haitian security forces had committed widespread human rights abuses, including mass arrests and shootings of civilians. PHR’s investigation of Haitian prisons revealed unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, disease, and brutal beatings of prisoners. These findings, discussed in the report “Health Conditions in Haiti’s Prisons,” brought international attention to the ongoing human rights abuses.
After Haiti’s devastating January 2010 earthquake, PHR joined other human rights organizations in calling for an international effort to provide relief and protection of the victims, and also protested a decision by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to lift the ban on deportations of Haitian nationals with non-violent convictions, calling the move a human rights violation.
