Women protest insecurity and living conditions at a tent camp in central Port-au-Prince, January 2011. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

By Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Mar 7 2013 (IPS)

Haiti is poised to enact major reforms to its penal code to make it easier for victims of rape to prosecute their attackers.

The amendments to the penal code would precisely define sexual assault in accordance with international law, legalise certain types of post-rape abortions, and criminalise marital rape.

The changes also mandate state-funded legal aid to victims who cannot pay for counsel. Discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation” would be banned in limited circumstances, in a first for Haitian law.When someone beats you, rapes you, and it's all over - you just keep it inside you? That would make me crazy.

“I think it’s an exciting time,” Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, said in February at a conference on the reforms. “It’s a small start with the penal code, but it’s a good start.”

Lawyers and activists at the conference pored over a three-page draft of the reforms. They’re optimistic that Haiti’s parliament will approve them within the year. Haiti’s prime minister and the ministry of justice have indicated they support the amendments.

But Manjoo warned that the law won’t be fully implemented or enforced without adequate funding from donors and participation by the public.

In the three years since the 2010 earthquake, the issue of sexual violence has gained an increasingly high profile. Foreign media reports referred to a “rape epidemic” in the tent camps scattered throughout Port-au-Prince.

A January 2012 study by a coalition of legal and women’s groups found that at least one member of 14 percent of all households displaced by the quake had been sexually assaulted.

Some experts, notably anthropologist and author Timothy Schwartz, cite a lack of independent data and question whether the prevalence of rape has been exaggerated by some of the advocacy organisations mentioned in this report.

But even Schwartz applauds the effort to reform the penal code by these same groups. He said it represents a welcome departure from the usual approach to structural problems in Haiti, where non-governmental organisations stage piecemeal interventions instead of bolstering the state.

Improvements at the grassroots

In the meantime, Haitian citizens, the police, and lawyers have attempted to address the violence at the grassroots.

In some tent camps, internally displaced Haitians formed brigades to safeguard against criminal threats, including rapists. A report by Poto Fanm+Fi found that these brigades, because of their strong community bonds, were usually more effective than patrols by United Nations peacekeeping troops at stopping sexual violence.

At police stations throughout the capital city, there are now officers trained to receive and assist female victims, Marie Gauthier, the Haitian National Police’s Coordinator for Women’s Affairs, told IPS.

“Carrefour, Fort National, Kenscoff, Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil, Delmas, Croix de Bouquet. . .” Gauthier listed off the different stations in city districts. Still, “now we need vehicles,” she said, “to go quickly and arrest the perpetrator.”

Survivors of sexual violence often turn to KOFAVIV, a Haitian women’s group, for moral and humanitarian support. The quake destroyed the group’s headquarters, displacing its founders into a tent camp.

But the group secured funding from international donors, including the U.S. government, allowing it to move from the camp into a two-storey office and expand its programmes. Women come from every corner of Port-au-Prince for bi-weekly gatherings where survivors can bond and share information with one another.

In the courts, significantly more rape cases are going to trial, according to lawyers for Bureaus des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a prominent Haitian law firm. Nearly a third of criminal trials during last summer’s court session in Port-au-Prince were for rape charges.

Thirteen convicted rapists were sentenced – a majority of those to maximum jail time. More prosecutions followed in the fall.

“It’s extremely significant, considering that a mere 10 years ago, barely any cases were being prosecuted,” Nicole Phillips, an attorney with the BAI, told IPS. She called the prosecutions and reforms to the penal code “a massive step forward.”

In the past, judges would demand victims present medical certificates obtained within 48 to 72 hours demonstrating they were raped. But it was difficult or impossible to get them, due to stigma, trauma, and prohibitive costs.

“The trials are getting more sophisticated,” Phillips said. The courts now rely more on expert witness testimony from medical professionals. She praised judges and the police in Port-au-Prince for taking rape accusations more seriously.

More work to be done

But Haiti’s progress in combating violence against women faced a high-profile test at the beginning of the year, and arguably failed.

When Marie-Danielle Bernadin first told her close friends she was sexually assaulted by her boss, the president of Haiti’s electoral council, their advice was simple: Leave Haiti.

“Where are you going to find justice here? Don’t file a complaint,” she remembers them saying. “Just go.”

After all, “normally one wouldn’t waste time” pressing charges against a high-ranking official, she said.

“But for me, I can’t keep something like this inside,” she told IPS in an exclusive interview. “When someone beats you, rapes you, and it’s all over – you just keep it inside you? That would make me crazy.”

Bernadin went to the police in November, shortly after the incident. She alleged that the official, Josue Pierre-Louis, had violently raped her after she confronted him about pictures of naked women on his cell phone.

She had been his assistant for two months. Pierre-Louis strenuously denied the charges and accused her of “espionage”, but the case went to trial.

At a pretrial hearing in January, supporters of Pierre-Louis – one of the most powerful men in the country – muscled their way into the hallway outside the courtroom, brandishing signs and chanting in his support. It took 15 minutes for police to arrive before they removed the protesters.

Five days later, Bernadin asked her lawyers to withdraw the charges. She issued a written statement to the press, saying: “I’ve decided to abandon the charges… but I reaffirm that I was beaten and raped by Josue Pierre-Louis.”

She described the previous months as some of the most difficult in her life. Supporters of Pierre-Louis attempted to shut her up using various methods, she said: her father was offered a job overseas, violent threats were phoned in to her family members in New Jersey, and a fake image of her was circulated online.

Her lawyers asked reporters not to take her photo, but they tried anyway every time she left the courthouse. She tried in vain to cover her head with a lawyer’s vest. The reporters ripped it before she could get to the car.

In her written statement, Bernadin denounced the threats made against her, judicial corruption, and described the tumult at the courthouse as “a horrible scene”.

Prior to the experience, she didn’t know that groups supporting victims of sexual violence existed in Haiti. She told IPS the justice system should prosecute Pierre-Louis of its own volition and “shine a light on the issue.”

“This way, if someone is raped, she could feel proud,” she said. “She could feel courageous enough to press charges. And rapists would be more afraid to commit these acts.”

Egyptian protesters post their criticism of the president on a board in Tahrir Square. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS.

By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, Jan 19 2013 (IPS)

Egyptians love to have a good laugh. At every opportunity they rattle off jokes and take jabs at themselves, their society, and – where they dare – their ruler.

Former president Hosni Mubarak was a regular target of the country’s satirists and wisecrackers. The egregious corruption, cronyism and social injustice under his three decades of authoritarian rule provided rich fodder for their quips and snarky critiques.

But draconian press laws and a network of strait-laced government informants discouraged Egyptians from overtly expressing their incorrigible political wit. Criticism of Mubarak was something to be shared among trusted friends, sent as an SMS, or masterfully veiled in symbols and allegory.

With the fall of Mubarak and easing of media restrictions Egyptians felt free to express their political views and subversive humour without fear of reprisal. The shifting political landscape and new climate of freedom set the stage for Bassem Youssef, a cardiologist turned comedian who became a household name in early 2011 after posting clips on YouTube lampooning state television’s fumbling take on the revolution.

He now hosts a slicker weekly show, Al Bernameg (The Programme), which is aired on a private satellite channel and is consciously modelled on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in the U.S. In it he mocks biased local news coverage and irreverently satirises public figures, taking shots at politicians, Islamists, members of the old regime, and even his own network heads.

But Youssef’s acerbic wit touched a nerve when during a recent episode he spoke sarcastically to a red pillow stamped with the image of Mohamed Morsi, ridiculing the Egyptian president’s purported authoritarian tendencies. The comedy show presenter is now under criminal investigation on charges of “insulting the president” and “undermining his standing.”

While rights lawyers think it is unlikely that Youssef will serve time for his jokes, the case has underlined the limits on free speech that insulate Egypt’s new Islamist president from criticism. In the six months since Morsi took office the country has seen unprecedented use of a Mubarak-era law that mandates custodial sentences for those whose comments are deemed “to affront the president of the republic.”

Heba Morayef, Egypt director of Human Rights Watch, describes the “rise in criminal defamation cases, whether it is on charges of defaming the president or the judiciary” as the “greatest threat to freedom of expression” now facing Egypt. She says the cases are likely to increase “because criminal defamation is now embedded” in the constitution that was passed last month in a highly divisive referendum.

Morsi’s administration has repeatedly denied any intention to censor opinion and insists it had nothing to do with the charges brought against Youssef. The lawsuit was filed by an independent Islamist lawyer with a history of lodging defamation suits against public figures seen to offend Islam. Another individual has filed a separate lawsuit demanding that authorities shut down Al Bernameg and revoke the station’s licence.

Under Egypt’s legal system, anyone can file a lawsuit for libel or slander, even if they are not the target of the alleged offence. It is up to the public prosecutor to decide whether there is enough evidence to refer the case to the courts.

The public prosecutor has been unusually busy since Morsi took office, says Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), a Cairo-based rights group. He is aware of at least 24 individuals formally accused of “insulting the president”, which carries a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of defamation cases in the six months under Morsi when compared to 30 years under Mubarak,” Eid told IPS.

The barrage of lawsuits has had a chilling effect on journalists, caricaturists, writers and television presenters. It has also made Egyptians wary of what they say online. In September, a court handed down a prison sentence to a citizen for insulting the president in comments posted to his Facebook page.

Earlier this month, the public prosecutor launched an investigation against columnist Gamal Fahmy after the presidency filed a complaint accusing him of insulting the president. Fahmy had accused the president of complicity in the death of journalist Husseini Abu Deif, who he claimed was targeted by armed Morsi supporters during violent clashes last month because he had exposed how the president “abused his power” to have his brother-in-law released from prison.

Fahmy, who served a six-month prison sentence under Mubarak for his critical writings, now faces the prospect of incarceration under Morsi.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali has said the president is committed to the principle of freedom of expression. He stressed that the presidency welcomes criticism, but objects to “false news that includes clear accusations against the president.”

ANHRI’s Eid says that rather than reforming Mubarak’s repressive media laws, the Morsi Administration is using them to intimidate and silence its political opponents. Article 179 of the Penal Code criminalises insulting the president without defining what constitutes an insult, permitting broad room for interpretation.

“It is the right of any citizen to criticise the president,” says Eid. “The president is a public servant whose conduct and performance directly affect the lives of millions of Egyptians.”

He adds that granting the president immunity from critical opinions – whether expressed through commentary, caricature or satire – leaves the door wide open for dictatorship.

Indigenous communities in Peru have a long list of comments and objections to the proposed regulations for the law governing prior consultation on initiatives affecting their territories.

AIDESEP president Alberto Pizango (in the long-sleeved shirt) at a Lima workshop, discussing the regulations for the prior consultation law. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

This criticism was voiced in a series of workshops conducted across the country ahead of the national meeting on the issue scheduled for Feb. 13-15.

“Before the regulations can be adopted, the law needs to be amended to resolve several gaps, such as the absence of the minimum requirements for prior consultation rights established by international instruments,” Alberto Pizango, head of the Inter- Ethnical Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), said.

Pizango – who became widely known during his presidential bid in 2011 – met in Lima on Feb. 2 and 3 with some 20 indigenous leaders from the Amazon region to agree on a joint position on the draft regulations, which will be delivered to the Ollanta Humala administration at the national event later this month.

Along with another four organisations that participate in the multi- sector committee created to prepare a draft regulations for the law, AIDESEP objects to public consultations being held at the environmental impact study stage of a development project, after the state has granted the relevant concession.

“For years the government failed to implement the provisions of Convention 169 and now it wants to continue ignoring them with inadequate regulations,” Pizango told IPS, in reference to the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1989 and ratified by Peru in 1994.

Pursuant to ILO Convention 169, which came into effect in 1991, ratifying governments must implement special systems to protect the rights of their native peoples and introduce a mechanism to consult them on laws, production projects, and policies that may affect their development and their habitat.

Despite ratifying the convention more than 15 years ago, Peru had done nothing to apply its provisions and, in particular, article 6, which expressly establishes the right of indigenous peoples to be consulted on matters affecting their territories and way of life. It was only in 2011 that Congress finally passed the Indigenous and Native Peoples’ Right to Prior Consultation Act.

According to observers, this step was prompted by a bloody clash two years earlier between the police and indigenous groups protesting for their right to be consulted in the northern rainforest town of Bagua, which culminated on Jun. 5, 2009 with more than 30 people dead between policemen and protesters.

Indigenous leaders also demand that the state include the obligation to obtain express consent or acceptance from indigenous peoples before launching any development projects in their territories that may affect their fundamental rights.

Moreover, they ask that the state refrain from waiving consultation even when the affected communities have begun negotiations with the concessionary company. For native leaders, a consultation guarantees a more transparent process.

In addition, some leaders claim “there are some indigenous grassroots organisations” that were not invited to the workshops to discuss the regulations, and, thus, such forums should be held in more areas.

So far workshops have been held in Bagua, the northern cities of Chiclayo and Iquitos, and the central cities of Cuzco and Pucallpa. The sixth workshop, held in Huancayo, in the central Andean region of Junín, ended on Feb. 6, with the series of workshops closing in Lima.

In response to this complaint, Vice Minister of Intercultural Matters Iván Lanegra told IPS that it was the indigenous organisations involved in the multi-sector committee that chose the cities in which the workshops would be held, and they are also responsible for convening participants and defining the methodology for the meetings.

“Everything was decided with their agreement. It’s an unprecedented system because until now the state decided unilaterally how things would be done,” he said.

He went on to say that after the meeting in Lima the multi-sector committee will sit down with indigenous leaders to discuss possible improvements to the regulations.

The regulations are expected to be adopted by the end of the month, at which time a database of indigenous peoples will also be operational to help identify the groups that need to be consulted for each project or initiative.

Lanegra told IPS that “the information on the communities and their geographical location (for the database) is ready.”

“The database will have an open-ended design and will be improved through the interaction with indigenous groups,” the government official said, after noting that the software will enable any citizen to freely access the database.

More than six million of the country’s 30 million people belong to one of 51 ethnic communities, according to 2007 data from the National Statistics Institute. Also 1,786 native communities and over 6,000 peasant communities are recognised.

The National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI) and other organisations demand that organised rural groups known as “rondas campesinas” and local communities living near water basins be consulted as well, as their livelihoods depend on the water that is usually used for extraction activities.

“Consulting them has to be a government obligation,” CONACAMI president Magdiel Carrión told IPS. But Lanegra argues that under Convention 169 that right only applies to indigenous peoples, although the government does observe other rights for these groups, such as the right to participate.

However, expectations among these rural groups continue to grow. Rural leaders in the southern region of Puno, who oppose the construction of the Inambari hydroelectric dam, demand to be taken into account.

Congressman Sergio Tejada, of the governing party, asked for clarity in demands, as he considered that significant progress had been made in the regulations. “Prior consultation should not be confused with other mechanisms of participation that are already in place for the non-indigenous population.”

Legislator Eduardo Nayap, a representative of the Awajun people, told IPS in turn that the important thing is that the dialogue not be hindered and that criticism be focused on improving the regulations and not on amending the law.

“We’ve struggled hard for this, and we need to move forward. We’ve already taken a major step,” he said.