CHALLENGES 2005-2006: UN Blue Helmets Earn Applause – And Censure

When United Nations peacekeepers opened fire on alleged gang members in a slum of the Haitian capital some six months ago, they also killed or injured dozens of innocent men, women and children. The incident was widely condemned by human rights activists who accused the troops of being cold-blooded murderers.

HEALTH-LATAM: Haiti the Sole Exception in Grim AIDS Outlook

In Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere, HIV prevalence fell in urban areas due to changes in sexual behaviour. But in the region as a whole, the number of people living with HIV, the AIDS virus, rose in 2005.

HAITI: Petroleum Greases the Deforestation Process

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, rising oil prices have forced households and small businesses that used natural gas or kerosene for cooking to instead use charcoal or firewood, a mortal blow to a country that has almost no trees left.

RIGHTS-HAITI: OAS Urged to Rein In Police, Peacekeepers

A dozen U.S. rights groups, attorneys and activists have submitted petitions to the human rights arm of the Organisation of American States (OAS) to take urgent measures to protect Haitian civilians from U.N. peacekeepers and the Haitian National Police.

POLITICS-HAITI: (Don’t) Vote for Me…

Blasting from giant speakers in Brooklyn's Crystal Manor ballroom one recent evening was a new song in Haitian Creole: "Vote! Vote Bazin for change!"

FILM: Haiti Teeters on the Brink

The world may be focused on Iraq's Oct. 15 elections, but an equally critical vote will soon take place in the first country in the Americas after the United States to declare its independence.

POLITICS-CANADA: Jean Appointment Signals New Era

There were three words that spelled excitement in the recent appointment of Quebec broadcaster Michaëlle Jean to the largely ceremonial post of governor general of Canada. And these were words Prime Minister Paul Martin avoided in making the announcement: "historic", "separation" and "minority".

HAITI: Near-Anarchy Reigns Despite Year-Old U.N. Mission

Human rights violations persist throughout Haiti by police officers, former members of the Haitian Armed Forces, armed gangs and civilians, despite the presence of the U.N.'s 7,600-strong peacekeeping force, the Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), warns an Amnesty International report released Thursday.

RIGHTS-HAITI: UN to Probe Deadly Raid

Following protests by human rights groups in the United States, the United Nations mission in Haiti has decided to investigate the alleged killing of civilians by its troops there early this month.

RIGHTS: Peace Begins With Mothers, Daughters, Sisters

Women are at the forefront of community-level conflict resolution but are rarely included in higher-level peace processes, leading to a sexist politics of peace, declared four experts on women's involvement in peace negotiations Monday.

RIGHTS-HAITI: Group Charges "Massacre" in U.N. Raid

A group of U.S.-based human rights and trade union activists is urging the United Nations to investigate the alleged killings of innocent civilians by its peacekeeping troops in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince last week.

TRADE: Caribbean Vows to Take Sugar Fight to EU Doorstep

Visibly upset at what they consider the "unilateral" position of the European Union, Caribbean leaders have announced plans to mount various missions to Europe in a bid to reverse the EU's decision to slash prices for sugar.

ENVIRONMENT-HAITI: A State Lost in the Trash

Uruguayan officers with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti could not believe that the water pumped from 70 metres underground could be contaminated with colibacteria. But indeed it was - and once again they had to rely on their portable water filtration system.

POLITICS-HAITI: Another Regime-Change Aftermath in Trouble

While the violence in Iraq continues unabated, the situation in Haiti, where the George W. Bush administration also played a key role in engineering regime change, is going from bad to desperate, according to increasingly worried analysts here.

RIGHTS-HAITI: UN Mission Walks Thin Line Between Peacekeeping and Repression

"For me, to be accused of being overly cautious is a thousand times preferable to being accused of murdering women and children," says Brazilian General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, military forces commander of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

HAITI: Drought, Poverty, Hunger – and Little Foreign Aid

The Sud province of Haiti is suffering a drought so severe that the planting season has been postponed. Yet no international financial assistance has come through to confront the crisis, reported Cécile Banatte, the local official designated by the interim government of Haiti to govern the largely agricultural southern province.

HAITI: Courts to Decide on Ex-Prime Minister’s Case, Says Gov’t

The courts in Haiti should reach a decision this weekend on the case of former prime minister Yvon Neptune, who has been in jail for the past year and on a hunger strike since mid-April, said his successor Gerard Latortue.

HAITI: Uruguayan Peacekeepers Are Good Neighbours

The family graveyards in front of the homes of rural residents were just one of the eye-opening experiences awaiting the Uruguayan soldiers who arrived in southwestern Haiti 11 months ago as part of the U.N. peacekeeping troops.

HAITI: A Hill Impossible to Climb

Whereas the ''favelas'' in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro are set high up in the hills ringing the city, the hilltops around the Haitian capital are home to palatial mansions, and the housing becomes poorer and more and more precarious as the slopes flatten into the sea.

HAITI: Preparations for Elections Far Behind Schedule

"We are not on schedule," a member of Haiti's interim government told IPS, referring to the delay in the preparations for the October and November elections, a key step towards the gargantuan task of rebuilding Haiti's institutions.

HAITI: U.N. Urged to Step Up Peacekeeping, Reconstruction Efforts

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti needs to be expanded and extended if elections later this year are to be free, fair, and safe, according to a new Security Council assessment.