U.N. Security Council renews Haiti sanctions, asks committee to provide names to designate

The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed Thursday to extend for another year sanctions targeting individuals and groups threatening peace and security in Haiti, but stopped short of designating any new individuals to be subjected to a travel ban, arms embargo or asset freeze.

Instead, the 15-member council asked a U.N. Sanctions Committee, headed by the permanent representative of Gabon, to consider updating the sanctions list as soon as possible in view of the findings of a panel of experts on Haiti, whose mandate was also extended for a year in order to continue their investigation.

“This should be done without any delay, as the reputation and authority of the Council are at stake,” said Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative. “One year after the adoption of [the resolution imposing sanctions] the situation of only one person on the designated list must be changed as soon as possible. We urge the Sanctions Committee to speed up its work.”

Last year, after agreeing to impose a sanctions regime on Haiti in response to the escalating violence by armed gangs, the council designated just one person, a former cop turned powerful gang leader named Jimmy Chérizier, who goes by the moniker “Barbecue.”

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the U.N. late Wednesday released a detailed 156-page report by the investigators into the role of armed groups in Haiti, their financing, dynamic, recruitment strategies and membership ranks as well as links with politicians and members of the economic elite. The study, which includes about 170 pages of confidential reports, found that gangs are interwoven in Haiti’s society and implicated in all areas, from the police to the judiciary to the customs and ports operations.

Chérizier is among several gang leaders highlighted in the public report. In addition to providing detailed information about the armed groups, including their membership numbers, leaders’ names, recruitment schemes and locations, the published report highlights the role of at least five high-profile individuals in the gang crisis and corruption, including the diversion of millions of dollars in public funds.

Named in the report are: former President Michel Martelly and his prime minister, Laurent Lamothe; former senator and head of the Senate Youri Latortue; former member of the Lower Chamber of Deputies and political party leader Prophane Victor, and influential businessman Reynold Deeb. Latortue and Victor are influential in the rural Artibonite Valley, just north of Port-au-Prince, where escalating gang violence has forced the closure of schools and health clinics, led to the deaths of several police officers and the slaughter of dozens of people.

All the individuals named — with the exception of Lamothe, who is named in a section about the misappropriation of earthquake recovery funds from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil program — are said by experts to have ties to gangs. The U.N. panel said Martelly armed and used gangs to expand his influence over neighborhoods during his 2011-16 presidency.

“No refuge or privilege should be given to those responsible for the violence and for the political and institutional stalemate in the country, in particular those that manipulate gangs and the political process in order to continue to benefit from this terrible situation that we see at the moment,” U.N. Ambassador Sérgio França Danese of Brazil said after the vote.

His South American nation, he said, “is always ready to evaluate the inclusion of new names on the sanctions list provided that these are well founded based on solid arguments and well documented.”

U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood noted that the sanctions resolution is the third the U.N. Security Council has passed on Haiti since July. The first renewed the mandate of the U.N. political office in Port-au-Prince, the second came earlier this month and authorized the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission, led by Kenya, to assist police in putting down gangs.

Though the security mission is currently being challenged in Kenya’s high court, Wood said the U.S. continues to view “an international response to Haiti’s call for international security support as serious, credible, and realistic, and one potential approach to taking on” the country’s challenges.

The U.S., which penned all three resolutions with Ecuador, said the “Security Council has taken an important step to help the Haitian people who have been victims of brutal gang violence, acute food insecurity, a cholera outbreak and years of instability and needless suffering.”

In addition to the one year renewal of both the sanctions regime and the panel of experts, who noted in their report their investigations will continue, the adopted resolution demands an immediate cessation of violence, criminal activities, and human rights abuses in Haiti.

Haiti’s political class, which has yet to break a stalemate since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, are also urged “to constructively engage in meaningful negotiations to overcome the current political stalemate in order to allow the holding of inclusive, free and fair legislative and presidential elections, as soon as the local security situation permits.”

During the work of the panel of experts, which began in January, they reached out to several countries for cooperation. Many did not respond. The resolution urges all U.N. members as well as international, regional and sub-regional organizations, and the multinational security mission to provide “unhindered access, in particular to persons, documents and sites in order for the Panel to execute its mandate.”

The sanctions report highlighted the flow of illicit arms and money into Haiti, and how bulk cash transfers finance both the drug trade and the purchase of arms and ammunition. Between 2018 and August 2023, according to the data made available to the experts, $1,141,882 in bulk cash had been intercepted on its way in or out of Haiti. This includes $413,581 in cash in several seizures that U.S. authorities intercepted between January and May of this year.

The money and weapons have led to the rise of criminal gangs, who now control at least 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince. In the resolution, the Security Council calls for member states to take appropriate steps to prevent the illicit trafficking and diversion of weapons and ammunition to Haiti; encourages them to ensure that adequate marking and record keeping measures are in place to trace arms, and calls on countries, particularly those in the region, to inspect all cargo being shipped into Haiti.

The government of Haiti is also asked to the reinforce the weapons and ammunition management capacity of the Haiti National Police through proper marking, record keeping, storage, and disposal of their stockpiles of weapons and ammunition.

Member nations are also asked to protect Haitian refugees and migrants in their territories in accordance with international human-rights law.

“The measures outlined in this resolution will play a critical role in promoting peace and stability in Haiti and in the broader region,” Wood, the U.S. representative said. “We remain deeply deeply concerned by the security and humanitarian situation in Haiti. So many patients continue to suffer from the ongoing violence.”

Describing Thursday’s vote as a “milestone,” Wood said the United States is “dedicated to adding designations” of people to sanction to the list and encourages other states to support this.

But while recognizing that the sanctions are “a key tool from the Security Council’s broader peace and security toolkit” to help stabilize Haiti, he added: “A lasting political solution is critical to promoting a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Haiti and the region.”