President of the United States Joe Biden has requested that the UN authorise a "security support mission" to Haiti in order to assist the Caribbean country in halting months of escalating gang violence.
Tuesday morning, Biden urged the UN Security Council to "authorise this mission now" while addressing the UN General Assembly.During his speech at the UN headquarters in New York City, the US president remarked, "The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer."
Only Vice President Biden represents the five permanent members of the Security Council in attendance at the high-profile UN gathering.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the de facto leader of Haiti, requested assistance from the international community in setting up a "specialised armed force" in October of last year to combat an increase in gang violence that was disrupting daily life for millions of Haitians.
The UN reported earlier this month that since the beginning of the year, there have been over 2,400 fatalities in Haiti as a result of widespread gang violence.The Port-au-Prince metropolis is mostly under the control of gangs, and violent crimes like rape, armed robbery, and kidnappings for ransom have increased.
The US and the UN supported the call for an international mission to Haiti, but a deployment has been put on hold for months because no government had consented to head such a mission there.
Since previous missions have done more harm than good, civil society organizations have likewise opposed the idea of foreign involvement and instead urged nations to support the Haitian police force and stop the flow of firearms into the nation.
Kenya, however, declared in July that it was ready to lead a "multinational force" in Haiti if the UN Security Council gave the mission permission to do so. The mission's goal would be to assist in assisting the Haitian police in their efforts to "restore normalcy" by providing training and support.
This month, the Security Council started debating the matter.
The government of Haiti and several other international leaders applauded Kenya's declaration, but it also sparked new worries about possible abuses by Kenyan security personnel.
Long-standing allegations of deaths and torture by Kenyan police include shooting dead civilians while under a COVID-19 curfew. According to a local organization, police fatally shot around 30 protesters in July, all of them were living in Kenya's most impoverished areas.
When a request for a mission to Haiti materializes, rights organizations will be closely monitoring to make sure safeguards are in place, according to Renzo Pomi, the representative of Amnesty International at the UN, who spoke with Al Jazeera last month.
Since this is a non-UN force, he declared, "We fear that an agreement between Haiti and Kenya will govern this." And that couldn't possibly encompass all the protections or requirements that we anticipate from any UN operation.
When a Security Council resolution would be presented for consideration of the potential foreign mission is yet unknown. Although no specific date has been scheduled, the US Department of State announced in late July that it would soon join Ecuador in introducing such a motion.
Washington would provide "significant financial contributions" to a multinational force in Haiti, a State Department spokeswoman added in August.
According to Vedant Patel, "We are actively engaging international partners to contribute funding, equipment, training, and personnel to this effort as well."
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