ARTICLE - POHDH - RULE OF LAW IS NOT A SLOGAN

FOR THE POHDH, THE RULE OF LAW IS NOT A SLOGAN!
(Haiti Libre) -

Antonal Mortimé, Executive Secretary of the Platform of Haitian Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights (POHDH), gave in an interview, on his reflections of the role of the Government Commissioner and the rule of law, following the resignation last Saturday of Lionel Constant Bourgoin....

"...I think we have two problems. First we must recall that the position of Government Commissioner is a position that has a political dimension, because he is the direct representative of the executive at the level of the judicial power, which must have the role of defending society against crime [...] the first thing is the government's behavior, which often seeks to influence the Commissioner on issues of justice. It's true that he represents it, but in the records of Justice the law must be the compass.

The second thing is that sometimes the Commissioner, also, may be overzealous, and at that time, those who are the main victims, ..... the justiciable, .... cases linger at the prosecution level, or the cabinet of instruction has difficulty acting on certain issues and again, I think this question requires a lot of thought in terms of judicial reform, compared to the forces of the Government Commissioner in relation to the political dimension, that there is at the level of this issue. I think it must be the subject of reflection, ..... who think that the independence of justice reform, as such, must be at the service of the population [...]

...normally the Constitution created a momentum within the state for the leaders to take the law as a compass, which means that if you want to respect the Constitution of 1987, we are already in the rule of law. The rule of law is not just a slogan [...]; since we are missing the law we are no longer under the rule of law [...] and at this time we can not talk about it.

The rule of law means that the law is applied to all persons, whatever their authority,... their level in society, ....in the same way. [...] for some time there have been actions, and behavior that the authorities have shown, that does not fit with the law..."