Haiti Libre
On Wednesday, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) held a special meeting at its headquarters in Washington, DC, where it received Hervé Denis, the Minister of Defense of Haiti who presented the “White Paper on National Defense and security for sustainable economic and social development in Haiti” whose we invite you to share the speech.
Extract from Minister Denis’s speech :
“[…] I would like to emphasize the crucial role played by the Inter-American Defense Council in supporting the Haitian Government in designing a security and defense strategy. I want to talk about the dedication of the President of the Council of Delegates of the then ICD, Brigadier General Victor Araya Menguini of Chile, as well as the General Secretariat under the leadership of Brazilian Admiral Bento Lima Costa of Albuquerque Junior without forgetting the Professors Guillermo Holzmann from Chile, Guillermo Pacheco from Perry Center, and Gisela Armerding from Argentina who have worked hard to finalize the important work of developing a White Paper for the future of my country.
[…] After sixteen months of hard work, the final document was delivered to the President of Haiti, during an official ceremony on June 25, 2015
[…] The development of this white paper has been successful in many ways. It has been one of the factors of national unity in the country […] through its observations, analyzes and recommendations, the White Paper lays the foundation stone and lays the practical foundation for a building that is both solid and necessary n order to respond to the great concerns of the Haitian people in terms of security and defense, while meeting the requirements of the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti.
[…] First, to conceive of a Public Force for a Haiti which wants to be a democratic State where the human being, its dignity, its freedom, its prosperity, and its security constitute axes without exclusion of any kind, according to the wishes of the founding fathers of the fatherland;
Second, to set the conditions for a Haiti conceived as a rule of law that promotes peace through democracy and respects its regional and international commitments;
Thirdly, to articulate the conception of a Haitian public force around the vision of an “economically equitable and socially modern state, which consolidates its institutions and gives priority to the environment.
In short, it was about designing the public force for a sovereign, peaceful Haiti, oriented towards sustainable economic and social development, and driven by the will to protect its citizens against all risks and threats.
[…] Now is the time to give us the means to implement it. It is indeed to this difficult task that the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Jovenel Moise, and the Haitian Government as a whole, are tirelessly striving.
We are nevertheless fully aware that in order to achieve the desired results, the symbiosis of the State’s efforts with the aspirations of the Haitian people and the support of our international partners are all prerequisites for achieving these objectives.
This is why we are determined to bring together all the energies of our partners in order to enable us to meet the major challenges of defense and security.
[…] Indeed, the assistance and cooperation of other States, organizations and institutions will require adequate coordination in terms of needs, logistics and distribution mechanisms. In this context, the creation of a civil defense system is more than necessary. And this is all the more fundamental since the Haitian Constitution in its article 266 obliges the Public Defense Force to “help the nation in the event of a natural disaster and be assigned to development tasks.”
[…] In addition to the points I have just mentioned […] we are defending our nation in essentially dissuasive and defensive terms, focused on protecting against threats to its existence and survival.
[…] We must also bear in mind that the presence of the army on the national territory, alongside the police, can only contribute to strengthening the budget revenues of the State through better control of border trade deficits related to smuggling
[…] In this sense instructions have been given to the Permanent Mission of Haiti to this prestigious hemispheric organization to follow the regular procedure so that Haiti’s security concerns are included in the draft resolution to be presented by the hemispheric Security Committee at this year’s General Assembly […]”
Download Minister Denis’ full speech (in french) : http://www.haitilibre.com/docs/herve-denis-livre-blanc-oea.pdf
Download the White Paper on Security and National Defense of Haiti : http://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Livre_Blanc.pdf
HL/ HaitiLibre