Key developments since May 2005: Haiti ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 15 February 2006 and it entered into force on 1 August 2006.
Haiti signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997. On 18 January 2006, the provisional President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs signed the ratification instrument, which was then officially deposited with the UN on 15 February 2006. The treaty entered into force for Haiti on 1 August 2006.
Haiti’s initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report is due no later than 28 January 2007. In March 2006, Landmine Monitor provided the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with information materials on Article 7 reporting.[1]
Haiti’s ratification was delayed by internal political crises. The parliament did not pass ratification legislation until January 2004, which was then not published in the Official Gazette until October 2005.[2]
Haiti’s first participation in a Mine Ban Treaty-related meeting was the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2005. Haiti also attended the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Zagreb, Croatia in November-December 2005, and the Standing Committee meetings in May 2006.
Haiti voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 60/80 on 8 December 2005, calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. It has voted in favor of every annual pro-ban UNGA resolution since 1996.
Haiti has stated in the past that it has never produced, imported, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines, and is not mine-affected.[3]
[1] Email from Landmine Monitor to Azad Belfort, Director of International Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Haiti, 28 March 2006.
[2] Haiti’s representative at the Sixth Meeting of States Parties explained that after publication in the Official Gazette, the instrument of ratification had to be submitted to the cabinet for signature, which he believed would happen by the end of the year. Oral remarks, Sixth Meeting of States Parties, Zagreb, 29 November 2005; notes by Landmine Monitor (Human Rights Watch).
[3] Letter to ICBL Coordinator from Minister Fritz Longchamp, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Haiti, 31 January 2000.