Yvon Neptune
Encyclopedia
Yvon Neptune was Prime Minister
of Haïti
from 2002 until 2004. He was appointed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
, and took office on March 15, 2002. He had previously served as speaker
of the Senate
.
after Neptune gave an interview to Kevin Pina
of KPFA Flashpoints in California and the Black Commentator, and Andrea Nicastro of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. In the interview Neptune claims he was not even present when interim-president Boniface Alexandre
was sworn into office. He also refers to himself as a prisoner in his own office and backs Aristide's claims that he was forced out of office under duress.US Marines guarding his residence killed two gunmen there. Neptune was replaced on March 12, 2004, by an unelected provisional government, led by Gérard Latortue
, which had been appointed three days earlier.
On March 27, 2004, the provisional government banned Neptune from leaving the country, along with 36 other senior officials of the Aristide administration, in order to more easily investigate corruption allegations. On June 27, 2004, after hearing about a warrant for his arrest on the radio, Neptune turned himself in to the Haïtian police and was held without charge. According to the Haïtian constitution, a hearing before a judge is required within 48 hours for anyone arrested, but Neptune was not given such a hearing. On May 4, 2005, Thierry Fagart, the chief of the human rights division at the UN's Haiti mission, called Neptune's detention illegal.
On February 19, 2005, Neptune was taken into protective custody by United Nations
peacekeeping
forces and handed himself back to Haïtian authorities after a Port-au-Prince
penitentiary breakout.
On April 18, 2005, Neptune began a hunger strike, refusing hospitalization and offers of medical attention abroad. On May 5 he was reported as being "near death". On June 23, Juan Gabriel Valdes - the UN's special envoy to Haïti - criticized the Haïtian government's handling of Neptune and called for his release from prison.
On September 14, 2005, 14 months after Neptune was first imprisoned, a formal statement of charges against him appeared. He was accused of participating in the "La Scierie Massacre," an alleged attack by Lavalas supporters in the La Scierie neighborhood of St. Marc. Subsequent investigations, including by the United Nations, revealed the massacre to be a struggle between two armed groups, with casualties on both sides. The Haitian Appeals Court prosecutor found that there was no credible evidence of Mr. Neptune’s involvement. Lawyers at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights said that the statement of charges "contain[ed] no indication that Mr. Neptune directly perpetuated the crimes alleged against him nor is there a clearly defined connection between Mr. Neptune and those who are alleged to have perpetrated the crimes...The mental and factual elements necessary to establish Mr. Neptune’s responsibility…remain entirely unclear.”
In May 2006, the Haitian prosecutor recommended dropping the charges against Neptune, because there was no credible evidence to support them.
After spending two years in prison and never having been tried, he was released on July 28, 2006. The charges against him were not dropped; he was released on health and humanitarian grounds. Hundreds of other members or supporters of the deposed Aristide administration remained in custody without trial.
On April 13, 2007, the Appeals Court of Gonaives ruled that the courts had never had jurisdiction to try Mr. Neptune. Under Haiti’s Constitution, regular courts in Haiti cannot try high public officials unless they have been previously convicted by the High Court of Justice, a special court formed by the legislature, similar to impeachment in the United States. In September 2009, the Haitian Government served this decision on Mr. Neptune and the other parties. When the appeal period elapsed a few days later, the dismissal of all charges became official.
(IJDH), the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux
and the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti filed a petition on Mr. Neptune's behalf with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) in Washington.http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline5-14-09.pdf In July 2006, the Commission ruled that the Government of Haiti's treatment of Mr. Neptune violated his international human rights. The Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States based in San José, Costa Rica
, for further proceedings.
On May 6, 2008, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
ruled that the State of Haiti violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights by illegally imprisoning former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune for two years and allowing the case to drag on in the courts for almost two more.http://www.nationnews.com/51828685277402.php The IACHR ordered Haiti to end what it called Mr. Neptune’s continuing “judicial insecurity” and to pay him $95,000 in damages and costs. The Court also ordered Haiti to start bringing its inhumane prisons in line with minimum international standards within two years.
“From the beginning, the State failed its obligation to protect Mr. Neptune’s right to be heard by a court competent to hear the charges against him…as well as to an effective recourse,” the IACtHR said in a 60-page judgment issued publicly on June 6. The Court denounced the State’s continued failure to bring Neptune before a qualified judge, thereby leaving him in a situation of “absolute judicial uncertainty.”
The IACtHR criticized nearly every aspect of Haiti’s prosecution of Neptune, which began in June 2004 and continues today. It found Neptune’s 25-month-long detention illegal, and the prison conditions he endured to be inhumane and degrading. Although Neptune has been out of prison since July 2006, the IACHR found that the violations of his rights continue because the case has not been dismissed, and he could be returned to prison at any time. The Court also condemned the State’s ongoing failure to provide Neptune a fair hearing. The ongoing violations amount to “an unjustifiable delay in access to justice,” the Court decided.
The IACHR found numerous other violations of Neptune’s human rights. Given the state courts’ lack of jurisdiction, Neptune’s rights against illegal imprisonment and arbitrary detention were violated. Because Neptune was jailed for 14 months before receiving a statement of the charges against him, the State violated his right to be informed within a reasonable time of the charges against him. And because the case against him has still not been resolved—more than four years after Mr. Neptune was imprisoned—the State stands in violation of Neptune’s right to be judged within a reasonable amount of time.
Haiti also violated Neptune’s rights by subjecting him to inhumane prison conditions, the IACHR found. The Court singled out the National Penitentiary’s overcrowding, squalor, and lack of general security, as well as multiple threats to Mr. Neptune’s life during his incarceration.
In total, the State violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Court found. These are: Article 1.1, on the State’s duty to respect and ensure human rights; Articles 5.1, 5.2, and 5.4, concerning the right to humane treatment; Articles 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 7.5, concerning the right to personal liberty; and Article 8.1, in conjunction with Art. 25, on the right to a fair trial and the right to judicial protection.http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline7-09-08.pdf
Prime Minister of Haiti
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti is the head of government of Haiti. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and ratified by the National Assembly. He or she appoints the Ministers and Secretaries of State and goes before the National Assembly to obtain a vote of confidence for...
of Haïti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
from 2002 until 2004. He was appointed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
, and took office on March 15, 2002. He had previously served as speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the Senate
Senate of Haiti
The Senate of Haiti is the upper house of Haiti's bicameral legislature, the National Assembly. The lower house of the National Assembly is the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of thirty seats, with three members from each of the ten administrative departments. Prior to the creation of the...
.
Overview of activity from 2004
On March 2, 2004, shortly after Aristide's removal, a mob attempted to arrest Neptune on corruption charges, but it was not successful. The mob was reportedly organized by Guy PhilippeGuy Philippe
Guy Philippe is a Haitian politician. When Jean-Claude Duvalier was toppled in 1986, he was 17 years old which makes claims that he was an alleged former Tonton Macoute leaderpreposterous. he lead the 2004 Haitian rebellion that ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide and he was a presidential candidate in...
after Neptune gave an interview to Kevin Pina
Kevin Pina
Kevin Pina is an American journalist and filmmaker. He is known for his reporting that focused on human rights abuses in Haiti following the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004 and the installation of the interim government of Gerard Latortue and Boniface Alexandre in March 2004...
of KPFA Flashpoints in California and the Black Commentator, and Andrea Nicastro of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. In the interview Neptune claims he was not even present when interim-president Boniface Alexandre
Boniface Alexandre
Boniface Alexandre is a politician in Haïti. He served as acting president of Haïti from 2004 to 2006. The 2004 Haitian coup d'état removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the Americas on February 29, 2004...
was sworn into office. He also refers to himself as a prisoner in his own office and backs Aristide's claims that he was forced out of office under duress.US Marines guarding his residence killed two gunmen there. Neptune was replaced on March 12, 2004, by an unelected provisional government, led by Gérard Latortue
Gérard Latortue
Gérard Latortue was the Prime Minister of Haïti from March 12, 2004 to June 9, 2006. He was an official in the United Nations for many years, and briefly served as foreign minister of Haïti during the short-lived 1988 administration of Leslie Manigat.In February 2004, the country suffered a coup...
, which had been appointed three days earlier.
On March 27, 2004, the provisional government banned Neptune from leaving the country, along with 36 other senior officials of the Aristide administration, in order to more easily investigate corruption allegations. On June 27, 2004, after hearing about a warrant for his arrest on the radio, Neptune turned himself in to the Haïtian police and was held without charge. According to the Haïtian constitution, a hearing before a judge is required within 48 hours for anyone arrested, but Neptune was not given such a hearing. On May 4, 2005, Thierry Fagart, the chief of the human rights division at the UN's Haiti mission, called Neptune's detention illegal.
On February 19, 2005, Neptune was taken into protective custody by United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
peacekeeping
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
forces and handed himself back to Haïtian authorities after a Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
penitentiary breakout.
On April 18, 2005, Neptune began a hunger strike, refusing hospitalization and offers of medical attention abroad. On May 5 he was reported as being "near death". On June 23, Juan Gabriel Valdes - the UN's special envoy to Haïti - criticized the Haïtian government's handling of Neptune and called for his release from prison.
On September 14, 2005, 14 months after Neptune was first imprisoned, a formal statement of charges against him appeared. He was accused of participating in the "La Scierie Massacre," an alleged attack by Lavalas supporters in the La Scierie neighborhood of St. Marc. Subsequent investigations, including by the United Nations, revealed the massacre to be a struggle between two armed groups, with casualties on both sides. The Haitian Appeals Court prosecutor found that there was no credible evidence of Mr. Neptune’s involvement. Lawyers at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights said that the statement of charges "contain[ed] no indication that Mr. Neptune directly perpetuated the crimes alleged against him nor is there a clearly defined connection between Mr. Neptune and those who are alleged to have perpetrated the crimes...The mental and factual elements necessary to establish Mr. Neptune’s responsibility…remain entirely unclear.”
In May 2006, the Haitian prosecutor recommended dropping the charges against Neptune, because there was no credible evidence to support them.
After spending two years in prison and never having been tried, he was released on July 28, 2006. The charges against him were not dropped; he was released on health and humanitarian grounds. Hundreds of other members or supporters of the deposed Aristide administration remained in custody without trial.
On April 13, 2007, the Appeals Court of Gonaives ruled that the courts had never had jurisdiction to try Mr. Neptune. Under Haiti’s Constitution, regular courts in Haiti cannot try high public officials unless they have been previously convicted by the High Court of Justice, a special court formed by the legislature, similar to impeachment in the United States. In September 2009, the Haitian Government served this decision on Mr. Neptune and the other parties. When the appeal period elapsed a few days later, the dismissal of all charges became official.
Inter-American System Proceedings
In April 2005, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in HaitiInstitute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA that seeks to accompany the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, justice and human rights. IJDH distributes information on...
(IJDH), the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux
Bureau des Avocats Internationaux
The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux is a public interest law office located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, founded in 1995. Its mission is to work with victims of human rights violations to force open the doors of Haiti's justice system for the majority of Haitians who are poor...
and the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti filed a petition on Mr. Neptune's behalf with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States .Along with the...
(IACHR) in Washington.http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline5-14-09.pdf In July 2006, the Commission ruled that the Government of Haiti's treatment of Mr. Neptune violated his international human rights. The Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States based in San José, Costa Rica
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...
, for further proceedings.
On May 6, 2008, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it makes up the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States , which serves to uphold and...
ruled that the State of Haiti violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights by illegally imprisoning former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune for two years and allowing the case to drag on in the courts for almost two more.http://www.nationnews.com/51828685277402.php The IACHR ordered Haiti to end what it called Mr. Neptune’s continuing “judicial insecurity” and to pay him $95,000 in damages and costs. The Court also ordered Haiti to start bringing its inhumane prisons in line with minimum international standards within two years.
“From the beginning, the State failed its obligation to protect Mr. Neptune’s right to be heard by a court competent to hear the charges against him…as well as to an effective recourse,” the IACtHR said in a 60-page judgment issued publicly on June 6. The Court denounced the State’s continued failure to bring Neptune before a qualified judge, thereby leaving him in a situation of “absolute judicial uncertainty.”
The IACtHR criticized nearly every aspect of Haiti’s prosecution of Neptune, which began in June 2004 and continues today. It found Neptune’s 25-month-long detention illegal, and the prison conditions he endured to be inhumane and degrading. Although Neptune has been out of prison since July 2006, the IACHR found that the violations of his rights continue because the case has not been dismissed, and he could be returned to prison at any time. The Court also condemned the State’s ongoing failure to provide Neptune a fair hearing. The ongoing violations amount to “an unjustifiable delay in access to justice,” the Court decided.
The IACHR found numerous other violations of Neptune’s human rights. Given the state courts’ lack of jurisdiction, Neptune’s rights against illegal imprisonment and arbitrary detention were violated. Because Neptune was jailed for 14 months before receiving a statement of the charges against him, the State violated his right to be informed within a reasonable time of the charges against him. And because the case against him has still not been resolved—more than four years after Mr. Neptune was imprisoned—the State stands in violation of Neptune’s right to be judged within a reasonable amount of time.
Haiti also violated Neptune’s rights by subjecting him to inhumane prison conditions, the IACHR found. The Court singled out the National Penitentiary’s overcrowding, squalor, and lack of general security, as well as multiple threats to Mr. Neptune’s life during his incarceration.
In total, the State violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Court found. These are: Article 1.1, on the State’s duty to respect and ensure human rights; Articles 5.1, 5.2, and 5.4, concerning the right to humane treatment; Articles 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 7.5, concerning the right to personal liberty; and Article 8.1, in conjunction with Art. 25, on the right to a fair trial and the right to judicial protection.http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline7-09-08.pdf
External links
- "Aristide's Ex-PM Refuses to Leave Haïti", ARIANA CUBILLOS (Associated Press Writer), Guardian Unlimited, 2 May 2005
- Fmr. Haïtian Prime Minister Beaten in Prison as Interim Gv't Prepares to Charge Him in Connection with Political Killings, Democracy Now (Radio), 25 April 2005
- HAÏTI: Former PM on hunger strike, Alison Dellit, Green Left Weekly: Online Edition, 2 May 2005
- If Neptune is flown into exile, he wants the world to know, it was a kidnapping 1 May 2005
- Hastings Human Rights Project for Haïti - A student led project which lodged a complaint on behalf of former PM Yvon Neptune
- Search for Justice for Haiti's Yvon Neptune and His Fellow Inmates: All Political Prisoners Council on Hemispheric Affairs
- Invisible Violence: Ignoring Murder in Post-Coup Haiti
- Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti Yvon Neptune case page
- Inter-American Court Decision in Neptune Case: Background Paper
- Yvon Neptune Contre Haïti, Cour Interaméricaine des Droits de l’Homme: Dossier Supplémentaire