Haiti

Haiti has experienced recurring natural catastrophes in the past which have strongly dented the country's development.

Haiti is the third hungriest country in the world after Somalia and Afghanistan

The poorest country in the western hemisphere

One of the poorest countries in the world Ranks Haitians live on less than $2 US per day.

Poverty

Type Of Government

The Government of Haiti consists of a semi-presidential republic, multiparty system where the President of Haiti is the head of state directly elected by popular vote. The Prime Minister acts as the head of government, and is appointed by the President from the majority party in the National Assembly

Current Leaders

President Michel

Martelly

Current Government

Martelly has been in power since 2011 when he won the Haitian general election for his party Repons Peyizan. Martelly came in third in the first round of the election, until the Organization of American States forced Jude Célestin to withdraw due to alleged fraud. Martelly assumed his position as the President of Haiti on May 14, 2011

The Results of the first round in the 2010 – 2011 election placed Jude Celestin in the lead which resulted in violent protests by Martelly's supporters, who said the result had been fixed by the government to ensure Celestin - who was backed by outgoing President Rene Preval - went through to the second round. This caused experts from the Organization of American States to analyze the results and both the US and UN called on Celestin to pull out of the race

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12293917

Voter Fraud

Article

Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier fled into exile in 1986 which marked a special time in Haiti's history, bidding farewell to tyrannical dictatorships. It set the stage for democratic governance.

In 1990 the people of Haiti voted in their first truly democratic election in generations.

Democracy In Haiti

The Constitution of Haiti was modeled after the constitutions of the United States and France. The document was approved by Parliament in March 2011 and came into effect on June 20, 2012

Re-legalizes dual citizenship, allows for Haitians living abroad to own land and run for Haitian political office (except for offices of president, prime minister or senator) and that 30 % of government jobs be held by women

Constitution Of Haiti

According to the Constitution and written laws, Haiti meets human rights standards. In practice, however The government’s human rights record is poor with a number of kidnappings

The Constitution mandates an independent judiciary and the right to a fair trial

The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech many journalists, however, practice a measure of self-censorship in order to protect themselves from retribution

Human Rights

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook

http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/haiti

http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=country&category=&publisher=FREEHOU&type=&coi=HTI&rid=&docid=4c0ceaefc&skip=0

Sources

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