Global perspective Human stories

At end of Haitian visit, Security Council focuses on police reform and living conditions

Security Council President Amb. Kodjo Menan addresses the press in Haiti. Other members of the Council delegation are seated to the left on stage.
UN Photo/Victoria Hazou
Security Council President Amb. Kodjo Menan addresses the press in Haiti. Other members of the Council delegation are seated to the left on stage.

At end of Haitian visit, Security Council focuses on police reform and living conditions

Police reform and the living conditions of Haitians who remain displaced after the January 2010 earthquake were the focus of the final day of the Security Council’s four-day visit to the impoverished Caribbean country.

Council ambassadors this morning visited a police academy where instructors from the Haitian National Police (HNP) have been trained by UN Police serving with the world body’s peacekeeping mission to the country (MINUSTAH), according to information from a UN spokesperson.

MINUSTAH has been working closely with the HNP in recent years to train its staff and reform its structure.

The ambassadors also met with internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the Carradeux camp in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where they assessed the living conditions and the work done by both peacekeepers and humanitarian staff to help residents.

Thousands of IDPs still live in temporary camps across Haiti, two years after the massive quake flattened much of the country’s infrastructure and killed more than 200,000 people.

Later, the Council delegation travelled to a cholera treatment centre for a briefing on the cholera epidemic which struck the country in late 2010 and has since killed almost 7,000 people.

The ambassadors have been visiting Haiti to examine the state of progress since the quake, particularly in reconstruction, job creation and capacity building. They are also evaluating the mandate of MINUSTAH, which has been in place since 2004.