“Whether it’s the right to life, physical security, freedom of expression, the right to food, access to health care, shelter or clean water, it’s a nightmare, especially for children,” William O’Neill, designated expert on Haiti of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights since April 2023, tells Justice Info. “Kids are being targeted by gangs, recruited, trafficked. You have millions of Haitians displaced. Sexual violence in Haiti is off the charts.”
Since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021 by unidentified gunmen, the country has been wracked by economic chaos, little political control, and increasingly violent gang warfare. Gangs now control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and parts of the country elsewhere.
“When the gangs are trying to invade an area, they employ complete scorched earth tactics,” says Diego Da Rin, Haiti expert for the International Crisis Group (ICG). “They ransack, they rape, they kill, they try to displace everybody from the area they are trying to invade. They burn the homes, so that people are not able to return.”
Haiti is a country with natural beauty, a vibrant culture and a proud political history. It became the world’s first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in the early 19th century. But for decades it has suffered from dictatorships, political instability and natural disasters, including the devastating earthquake of 2010.
According to the UN, nearly 6,000 people were killed in 2025, and more than 2,700 injured. It puts this violence down to gangs, but also to self-defence groups and security forces. In the fourth quarter of the year, it says that 62% of the deaths and injuries were due to law enforcement operations, “in some cases supported by a private military company”.
No president for five years, no elections for ten
Haiti has had no President for nearly five years, and no elections for ten. Since 2021, acting Prime Ministers have come and gone. In April 2024, a nine-member Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) was set up until an elected Head of State was sworn in or until February 7, 2026, whichever came first. One of its powers was to appoint the Prime Minister.
In November 2024, the Council removed Prime Minister Garry Conille, replacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. In January 2026, just before the TPC’s mandate was due to run out, several Council members tried to remove Fils-Aimé. And just before the February 7 deadline expired, Washington sent gunboats into Haitian waters. The US said this was part of a mission to secure stability in Haiti. On February 7, the TPC handed power to Fils-Aimé.
According to Da Rin of the ICG, Fils-Aimé had little political experience. “The Presidential Council hoped that with this new Prime Minister, they would be the ones calling the shots,” he continues, “but the Prime Minister quickly refused to remain under the shadow of the Presidential Council. He started his own initiatives. For example, in February 2025 he created a Security Taskforce that is assisted by foreign contractors from a company [Vectus Global] run by the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince. The Security Taskforce has been operating explosive drones against the gangs, and this has changed the rules of combat.”
US priority: prevent mass migration
With some 60% of the voting population in gang-held areas, it had not been possible to organize elections by February 7, 2026. Da Rin says foreign countries – not only the US, but other countries such as Canada and France – saw the Council as ineffectual and Fils-Aimé as the best bet for stability and continuity. They exerted diplomatic pressure, and the US sent gunboats to Haitian waters.
Asked about US policy in Haiti under US President Donald Trump, UN expert O’Neill describes it as “robust” so far. “In a good way – and I don’t say this very often – the Trump administration has put more pressure to try and stop the flow of arms,” he told Justice Info. “There is not a single gun or bullet manufactured in Haiti, and overwhelmingly the gangs get their munitions from the US, particularly the state of Florida, either directly or through the Dominican Republic. The US has made some arrests in Florida, they have increased inspections of the little boats that leave the port of Miami for Haiti and caught some shipments of arms. And the US has put several high-powered Haitian politicians and business people under sanctions.”
Both Da Rin and O’Neill say the Trump administration’s main policy goals in Haiti, as stated by the US ambassador to that country, are to prevent a total collapse of the state, and prevent mass Haitian migration to the United States.
The US under Trump has been critical of the UN and withdrawn support for many of its institutions. “In Haiti, it’s a bit different,” says O’Neill. “Some of my colleagues at UN headquarters in New York say it’s ‘à la carte’. Because they are so concerned about Haitians landing on beaches in Florida, they have actually been quite supportive of the UN in many ways, including humanitarian aid, support for the international security force. They are not going to contribute with troops, I think that’s a red line for the Trump people. In Haiti, the US has again picked its programmes, picked its issues, but has been supportive [to the UN].”
New UN-backed force
In September 2025, the UN Security Council authorized a new Gang Suppression Force (GSF) for Haiti, to replace the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which was largely ineffective. The GSF is designed to have up to 5,500 police and military personnel, whereas the MSS only reached about 1,000. The GSF also has a stronger mandate. Da Rin says the new force has several innovations to help overcome the lack of funding and logistics faced by the Kenyan-led mission. In addition, he says, the force will be able to conduct military operations independently as well as with the Haitian police, whereas the previous one could only support the Haitian national police.
“If it is ever able to get even close to 5,000, if it is able to have the air assets it needs, meaning helicopters to move people around, get around the gang roadblocks and into densely populated neighbourhoods by air -- which is terrifying for the gangs because they have no defence against that –, it could succeed. But there are a lot of ifs,” O’Neill says.
O’Neill also hopes the new force will only use lethal force where strictly necessary, especially as the gang-controlled areas are densely populated. Another issue, he says, is Vectus Global, which has a contract with the Haitian government and has been using drones against the gangs. “That’s a private military company which is also a major player now in this fight against the gangs,” he continues. “How they coordinate with the Gang Suppression Force and the Haitian government is anybody’s guess. And what is their accountability? What happens if the private security people end up killing some women and children?”
Two new specialized judicial units
O’Neill says justice is another huge challenge. “The justice system barely functioned in Haiti before all this,” he told Justice Info. “The gangs have occupied two major courthouses in Port-au-Prince, they have destroyed case files and records. Many courts don’t function, judges and prosecutors are always going on strike because they don’t get paid, so it’s just a huge mess. Reforming the justice system is a massive task that is going to take decades.
“But in the near term, for some of these pressing issues related to the violence, there is one thing already in the works,” he adds. “One of the few positive things that the Presidential Council did last April was to pass a decree creating two new judicial units (“pôles judiciaires”). They are a kind of specialized tribunals within the Haitian justice system. One is going to deal with financial crimes, corruption and money-laundering, which is another huge problem in Haiti and one of the reasons why Haiti is the way it is. The other one is going to deal with gang violence, sexual violence, mass violence.”
These Haitian institutions will have some international support and expertise. O’Neill says they will take time to set up, “to get buildings, to get people picked and trained and raise the money for this”. He hopes they could be operational by autumn of this year. So far, the UN and Canada have pledged support, but he does not have further details at present.
The main problem in Haiti is impunity, both experts agree, along with corruption, deep poverty and inequality. There has been no justice even regarding the assassination of the president five years ago. “The only justice that may be done on that is in the United States,” O’Neill told Justice Info. “There is going to be a trial beginning in March in Florida of one of the alleged co-conspirators in the plan to kill President Moïse. He was extradited to the US and will face justice there. Many Haitians would actually like to see that.”
Transitional justice, after restoration of state authority?
The ICG says in a December 2025 report that “in cooperation with international experts, the [Haitian] administration should also start to design a transitional justice system that provides benefits and a measure of judicial reprieve to those who disarm and cooperate with the authorities, while also guaranteeing that there will be no general impunity.”
Da Rin tells Justice Info that the priority is to restore security. “Achieving armed superiority against the gangs and turning the tide in the battle, shifting the balance of power would be a major breakthrough in Haiti. But it is unlikely that gangs will be eliminated by force alone. At some point the members of the gangs have to make full confessions, to tell the truth not only about their own activities but also who supports them, to try to understand how this link between politics and violence has been operating in the past decades and how to prevent that from happening again in the future.”
“I have talked to Haitians about hybrid tribunals – as in Sierra Leone, Cambodia and so on – and they are not interested,” says O’Neill. “They say we want to do it ourselves. That’s where they get all huffy about sovereignty, and I understand it. I think other forms, like reparations and truth-telling, accountability mechanisms, truth commissions are being discussed too, especially for the victims of sexual violence. You are not going to be able to try everyone in these “pôles judiciaires” because there are just so many perpetrators, and I remember this from Rwanda. So I am all for transitional justice in its various forms, but only what will be acceptable to the people there.”
