As the Haitian state continues to lose territory to gangs, the hemispheric organization has adopted a resolution to support local authorities in critical areas, including security, humanitarian aid, political dialogue and elections
By Juhakenson Blaise
Haitian Times
https://haitiantimes.com/
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Responding to Haiti’s deepening instability, the Organization of American States (OAS), an international group that coordinates cooperation amongst 35 countries of the Americas, adopted a resolution on June 27, calling for immediate action to address the country’s “multidimensional crisis.”
The resolution directs OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin, who represents the hemisphere’s political bloc, to deliver a plan within 45 days to improve security, deliver aid and help organize elections to support Haiti in four areas: security, humanitarian relief, political dialogue and the organization of free and fair elections.
The plan, to be drafted with Haitian officials, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), must include strategies, funding sources, implementation timelines and performance benchmarks.
“Haiti needs an urgent, united response,” Ramdin told OAS delegates. He urged permanent observer states to join in sustained diplomatic and material support.
“This is not merely a moral obligation but a shared responsibility. Haiti’s path to peace and recovery depends on collective action.”
“This is not merely a moral obligation, in our view, but a shared responsibility. Haiti’s path to peace and recovery will depend on collective action and sustained cooperation.”
OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin
Adopted during the hemispheric organization’s 55th Ordinary General Assembly in Saint John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, the resolution comes amid rampant gang violence, institutional collapse and an accelerating humanitarian disaster in Haiti.
The OAS is encouraging its member states to support the current Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) and step up assistance—financial, logistical or necessary material—to the Haitian National Police (PNH).
Speaking on behalf of Haiti’s transitional government and presidential council (CPT), Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste emphasized the need for urgent solidarity. “Haiti is caught in an unprecedented crisis,” he said, citing the convergence of gang violence, illicit trafficking and institutional dysfunction. “Only a unified response within the OAS can reverse this spiral.”
UN Security Council to meet Monday
Separately, the UN Security Council is set to meet Monday, June 30, to discuss Haiti, following a request from the A3++ group—Sierra Leone, Somalia, Algeria and Guyana—prompted by a letter from Haiti’s closest Caribbean neighbor, the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican government supports UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s proposal to transform the MSS into a hybrid mission with shared international leadership.
According to local newspaper Diario Libre, the proposal warns of an imminent risk: that Haiti could fall entirely under gang control, threatening stability across the region.
The MSS marked its first anniversary on June 25 with limited impact. Only part of the 2,500-member force has deployed, and the mission faces a $600 million annual funding gap.
Since it arrived last year, Haiti’s security has further deteriorated. Gangs now control growing swaths of territory, spreading from one strategic neighborhood to another, commune to commune.
After overtaking Mirebalais and Saut-d’Eau at the end of March, violent armed groups attacked La Chapelle last week in the Artibonite region—burning the police station, torching homes and blocking access to prevent law enforcement response.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported six deaths and nearly 9,000 displaced residents five days after the latest attack. The commune is now under gang control entirely.
Local authorities said the attack had been publicly announced in advance. Yet, no preventative action was taken, La Chapelle mayor, Robinson Dieuseul Fonrose lamented, noting that it joins a growing list of abandoned areas, including Martissant, Canaan, Kenscoff, Gressier, Mirebalais, Saut-d’Eau, Croix-des-Bouquets and Carrefour, among others.
