Haiti: Pairing sanctions and other international responses

Over the course of the last 24 months, security in Haiti continued to deteriorate alarmingly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and in rural areas in the centre and south of the country.

This has been driven armed gangs, which have undergone a radical evolution, going from unstructured actors dependent on resources provided by public or private patronage to violent entrepreneurs who have been able to convert their territorial power into governance capabilities. This has been fuelled by the gangs’ unprecedented access to firearms and the Haitian state’s inability to halt their expansion, professionalization, and propensity to impose their rule over ever-larger territories, as well as by ongoing collusion by elements of the country’s political and economic elites.

Alongside a planned multinational security support mission, targeted sanctions form a key part of the international response to the violence in Haiti. Despite the growing use of sanctions by the UN, Canada and the US, and the support these measures may enjoy in the country, there has been limited public discussion on the role they can play, their strategic pairing with the planned intervention, and their impact.

In this webinar moderated by Ana Paula Oliveira, Romain Le Cour Grandmaison and Matt Herbert will discuss the current situation in Haiti, the use of sanctions to date, and strategic opportunities for leveraging sanctions strategically in Haiti.