Better Shelter, Security Needed for Haiti Victims
Urgent Action Still Needed on Safe Camp Sites for Those Made Homeless by Quake
The United Nations Security Council should make improving the quality and security of camps for displaced victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake a top priority, Human Rights Watch said today in an open letter to the Council’s member states.
Human Rights Watch completed a field investigation in Haiti on February 12, 2010, and drew the attention of Security Council members to areas it believes deserve urgent action. The team visited 15 of the largest camps for displaced persons in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel (housing 5,000 to 35,000 people each), and interviewed over 150 camp residents, local officials, and staff of international relief agencies and UN bodies, as well as local activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
“Despite all the relief efforts, hundreds of thousands of Haitians remain in desperate need,” said Anna Neistat, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, who led the investigative team in Haiti. “The Haitian government urgently needs to do all it can lawfully to make sites available for camps for displaced and homeless persons.”
