UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OCHA Press Conference: Ulrika Richardson on situation in Haiti

Good morning.

Welcome to this, uh, press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.

Today is Tuesday, 12th of December.

And as you know, we are starting our briefing a little bit earlier

because we have the privilege to have with us

Uh, Ulrika Richardson,

the deputy special representative of the Secretary General,

uh,

at the United Nations Integrated Office in

Haiti and resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator,

um, to give us an update on the humanitarian situation in Haiti.

Uh,

just, uh uh, uh, a couple of points after that. Mrs. Uh, Richardson is finished.

We will continue with the normal press briefing.

Uh, we will have just a little inter interruption between the two.

And, uh, I will start this, uh,

briefing on Haiti by reminding you that yesterday night we have, uh,

circulated the statement attributable to the spokesperson

for the Secretary General on Haiti,

where he said that the Secretary General is concerned

over the limited progress in the inter Haitian dialogue

towards a lasting and inclusive political solution

to restore the country's democratic institutions.

The Secretary general said he extends his full support to the efforts of the K

Eminent Persons Group

and to be new to facilitate sustainable and

nationally owned solution to Haiti's political crisis,

the secretary general looks forward to the

continued preparations for the deployment of urgently

needed security support to the Haitian National

Police through a multinational security support mission.

As authorised by Resolution 2699 of this year,

the secretary general underlines the importance of an agreement

on the restoration of democratic institutions providing for credible,

participatory and inclusive elections

to achieving sustainable rule of law and security.

He appeals to the full range of political actors and stakeholders in Haiti

to come together and reach a broad consensus as a matter of priority.

And as I said, this is the spokesperson of the Secretary General,

You have the full text in your mailbox.

And now I'm really pleased to give the floor to Mrs

Richardson to hear more about the humanitarian situation in Haiti.

Mrs. Richardson,

good morning. Um,

thank you very much for being here this morning

and giving me the opportunity to brief you on Haiti.

And I would like to also thank Alexandra for also reading

the important message from the Secretary general of last night.

So as we speak Haiti is probably going through one of its most

difficult times in recent history.

For many Haitians, daily life is not only a

striking struggle to find food to put on the table for their families,

but it's also a matter of life and death.

Many go to great risk of just leaving their house, going about a normal life,

risking being caught in line of fire, risk being kidnapped, risk being lynched,

risk being

raped. And very often that happens.

In fact, we have seen.

Just in these 1st 11 months of 2023 we've seen 8000 killings, lynchings,

kidnappings and rape. Very often collective rape,

often targeting, of course, women

but also young girls. In fact, we see,

a lot of young girls and I've met 14 year

olds that already are mothers as a result of rape

by, uh, very heavily armed gangs.

Very brutal, often

Haiti, as a result of years of unfortunate

cementation of impunity and of corruption across the board,

but also the investments in the economic

in economic opportunities of the country

it has. It is today facing

the situation of absolute brutal violence,

we often think that we've reached and many Haitians

often think that we have now reached the the the very the peak of violence

and then we see just the next week even more brutal.

So Haiti, in fact, is spiralling into a very serious

We can call it a human rights crisis. We can call it a protection crisis

overall, simply to say that it's a multi

dimensional crisis.

In fact,

it has an impact on, of course, the humanitarian situation.

We have in fact, 5.2 million Haitians today

that are in need of humanitarian assistance.

We have 4.35 million people

that face acute food insecurity, and that's a staggering figure.

It is two out of five Haitian

that face acute food insecurity. In fact,

it's impacting everyone, of course,

those most vulnerable and in particular Children.

In fact, we have a 30 per cent increase in acute severe child malnutrition

and you can imagine what that means for Children. 30% increase already.

We have

as a result of the violence, many of the armed gangs

that many very often are well organised

with a certain control and command.

They invade neighbourhoods and as a result people have to flee their homes fear,

fearing their life, obviously their families.

And this has created also

a rapid acceleration in terms of people displaced people.

We have 200,000 in the country, 143,000 in the capital alone, which is of course,

a very large number.

In fact, when we look at the capital,

it is the most affected by the gang violence. We consider that about 80 per cent of the

capital

is controlled by or influenced by these gangs.

We also consider that there is around 300 gangs in the country

and in fact it is spreading now beyond the capital, particularly to the A

B

department, which is in fact the breadbasket. It used to be the breadbasket of Haiti

and in fact we need to note as well that

even though we have these staggering figures around food and security,

Haiti used to be food sovereign.

It was a country that produced all its food.

In fact, it exported food and now it is dependent on food imports.

But we are also trying as the UN to change this optic even in this dire situation.

So not only are we

not only are we working on humanitarian assistance,

we have a very strong humanitarian country team,

very engaged colleagues, both un but also

NGOs, national and international.

And we have managed to have access to one to the

most difficult areas where not even the Haitian state is present

and that access is very precious. It is very

life saving, in fact, for the population.

But we also try to go beyond humanitarian assistance and really work

in this cross pillar collaboration in

the space between development and humanitarian.

For example,

stimulating local food production in the south and in the north to be able to,

for example, furnish

the very essential school feeding programme with local products.

And that means that we also stimulate.

Of course, local economy Children get a very nutritious meal

and all in all, it's really a positive, uh,

circle.

So we have this situation in fact, of paradox, with very striking, painful,

very heartbreaking

facts and this situation of violence and and really grim

brutality that the gangs are are exposing the population to.

But we also have this sensation of hope

and that things are possible

in fact,

a great frustration for the UN family and also for the

humanitarian community in Haiti is that we don't have sufficient funding

we have. We are now up to 33 per cent in terms of funding for

humanitarian response plan of this year.

So already we are now working on our next year's humanitarian response plan.

But 33 per cent.

That really sort of crunches us to really think that we

could do so much more if we had more funding.

Now with that, maybe also just a very brief note on

why we also hopeful and something that many Haitians most Haitians,

in fact welcome quite

openly is,

of course this expression of solidarity and the

Resolution 2699 that was passed in October this year

for the deployment of a multinational,

non UN self sustained security support mission.

And we are very grateful for Kenya for taking the lead

and very generously pledging the 1000 police officers.

There are other countries both in the Caribbean region, the car

members, but also Central and Latin America,

of course, the Africa continent. They have

also expressing a significant interest to contribute,

but also countries in Europe, so we have a really, I would say quite a significant

multinational expression of solidarity.

We hope that this security support will arrive to Haiti as soon as possible.

You will have noticed that

the Kenyan parliament gave the green light and now it has

to go through the High Court in Kenya for a final

Let's say endorsement before these police officers can be deployed to Haiti.

Maybe a final note to say that on the 2699

when you read,

you will see very strong mentioning of the human rights dimensions of this support

and in fact, the human rights due diligence, also child protection,

looking at the whole gender dimension of the very striking violence in Haiti,

but also, of course, prevention of sex,

sexual exploitation and abuse.

So, as I said, it's a non UN mission.

But we, as the UN family, along with other members of the international community,

realise that we have to really approach this with

a comprehensive plan to assist Haiti to accompany Haiti.

The return of state institutions,

state control in many of these areas where the state is not present

services, basic services including water and sanitation,

health and education of course,

but also looking at the justice system and the correction system.

Prisons in Haiti are chronically overcrowded up to 300 per cent.

And unfortunately, the greater majority of inmates, if you wish,

have are there on a pre trial basis.

In fact, only three per cent of prisoners that leave

prison in Haiti has ever seen a sentence.

So we are working with the government with other with public institutions

across the international

community in Haiti to really approach

and make sure that we assist Haiti maximise

the arrival of this very important and needed

multinational security support mission.

I will end there and I am ready to take questions.

Thank you very much, uh, ulrica for this interesting and dire briefing,

and I'll start with Chris.

Uh, vog. Uh uh,

Chris is our chief of office of the IFP

bureau.

Uh, hello. Thank you for taking my questions and for the briefing. Um,

no. Uh

um

I just prefer it's it's just easier.

Um, So anyway, the,

um you said that the the funds you're asking for the it was only 33% funding.

Could you tell US how much you ask and how much you need for next year.

It's just 11 question. The the second and more important, one is, uh,

when do you expect the police force to arrive? And

what gives you a sense of hope that they

will be able to work in an environment they have

no idea of? How are they? I mean, there is nothing more difficult than policing

a place that you don't know.

So I would like to to give us some some details on that.

How you think it's going to work. Thank you.

Thank you, Erica.

Thank you very much

for that question. So currently, the

HRP for which we have the 33 per cent funding and that's a total amount of 720 million.

We are currently finalising the amount for 2024 and that will be slightly less.

We are trying to be more targeted.

We are trying to be more specific in the humanitarian assistance

and of course, making considerable investment into this space.

The cross pillar collaboration, the space between humanitarian and development

now coming to the multinational security mission.

Um, we, of course,

it's very difficult to to have an estimation of when they will arrive to Haiti.

That depends very much on on the Kenyan,

uh, now judiciary,

um and, um and of course, a lot of other elements such as the funding.

But

we would expect and we would hope that they would

be able to arrive during the first quarter of 2024.

In fact, as we speak, there is already a mission in Haiti.

Of course, the Kenyans have visited Haiti.

There is an ongoing, very intense exchange of information.

In fact, the Kenyan delegations that come to Haiti,

they realise, and they are very aware of the fact that they that the Haiti

situation is new to them.

So they are very thirsty for information and they

do get briefed very extensively both in New York

as well as in Nairobi.

We have teams in Nairobi working with the Kenyan police,

also on establishing a pre deployment training package.

So there is a lot of exchange already happening.

Of course, this is going to be a very complex operation,

but we hope that with the totality of contributors,

many with experience in the region,

we hope that that will actually prove to be a very

fruitful exercise that would indeed help Haiti to tackle

the violent the violence created by the armed gangs

on the funds

on the front.

OK, so I'll give the floor to

No,

Sorry, I should

speak in English,

so

OK,

ok.

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The the

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on.

I'll give the

floor to

our correspondent of the Kyoto

News.

Thank you very much for taking my question. Uh, I will ask it IN French.

I think it's easier for my colleague

Mercy

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premire.

It's really pretty,

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et cetera

multinational,

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screening, the vetting.

Uh uh, Republic

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Lessons learned

Antonio

brought

to, uh, Spanish news agency.

Thank you very much.

Um, my question is, uh, concerning the message, uh, yesterday,

given by Secretary General

Mr Guterres saying that he's concerned

about the limited progress in in the inter Haitian, uh, dialogue,

but he didn't elaborate. Do you know what are the obstacles to this, uh, dialogue?

And, uh uh, do these obstacles, uh,

affect the deployment of the security mission and the entry of humanitarian aid.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Muchas

gracias. Yes.

So the political dialogue in fact as always when you try to reach

consensus and when you have different opinions

there are many different political parties.

I

think that a political dialogue in any country is complex and so it is also in Haiti.

Part of the discussion here is obviously Haiti is currently

has has no elected official in the country.

The mandate of parliamentarians of all the

parliamentarians ended in January this year.

So of course we are really Haiti finds itself sort of out of the constitutional

order, if you wish. So that makes the situation also more complex.

You have really nothing.

You cannot rely on the Constitution to tell you what should be the next steps.

Um uh, right now there is a concerted effort and I think that was the message, uh,

the the heart of the message of the SG yesterday.

The Secretary general

was really that actors need to come together and accelerate

the the rhythm

of, let's say,

really put a sort of a higher gear into

the political dialogue so that we can advance on that

right now. We don't

We don't see that that is impacting the

arrival of the multinational security support mission.

And also it does not impact

our humanitarian operations.

Of course, it makes the situation in Haiti more complex.

And as we see in many other countries,

when you have a situation of political instability, which has, after all,

been quite a frequent feature of the political scenery in Haiti,

But it does not

prevent us. It does not present

an obstacle for humanitarian assistance.

Thank you.

Thank you

very

much.

Oh,

an undertaking. It's a commitment

msy

buku.

And I would like to really thank very much Mrs Richardson for this, uh, briefing.

I don't see other questions for her.

So, uh, online or in the room?

So I will really would like to thank her very, very much for coming and briefing.

The journal is in Geneva just before leaving. So thanks.

And please come back any time and good luck with this month.

That's are going to be pretty difficult

in a EI even more than they are now.

And I really hope that everybody will hear the appeal for

a stronger contributions to the funding demanded for humanitarian activities.

As usual,

we will take five minutes of break and then we will

continue with the rest of the programme of the press briefing.

Thank you.

Me?

OCHA PRESS CONFERENCE: ULRIKA RICHARDSON ON SITUATION IN HAITI - 08 DECEMBER 2023