The Haitian judiciary continues to be mired down by promises to improve the general working conditions of judicial officers, fill vacancies, fight against the prolonged pretrial detention, and rehabilitate and build judicial infrastructure hit by the earthquake.In some jurisdictions, magistrates are provided with large resources, and in others they work in atrocious, and difficult conditions. Defendants appear in court at times with no files or documentation, having had no access to appropriate legal counsel. Magistrates in civil tribunals are by comparison treated poorly, andrelegated to the background, housed in dilapidated locales. Left to themselves, magistrates operate according to their own schedule and work practices.
RNDDH calls upon the government, and all stakeholders to:
- Build modern courthouses;
- Provide all magistrates with adequate budgetary and physical means for their operation
- Operationalize the existing Office of Judicial Inspection in order to improve transparency, and report on working conditions across the country, e.g. regulate working hours of judges, and punish truants;
- Constrain CASEC members to respect their authority and sanction those who exceed their functions by acting as police officers and Justices of the Peace;
- Require the judiciary to properly prepare criminal cases in the legally allotted time period;
- Establish the Superior Council of Judiciary.