By Bill Quigley
1. Allow all Haitians in the U.S. to work. The number one source of money
for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the U.S. back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the U.S. will
continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.
2. Do not allow U.S.
military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry
Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions
have already been made that will militarize the humanitarian relief — but do
not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.
3. Give Haiti grants as
help, not loans. Haiti does not
need any more debt. Make sure that the
relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with
basic public services.
4. Prioritize
humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the
line. If they are moved to the back of
the line, start at the back.
5. President Obama
can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a
pen. Do it. The U.S. has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin Luther
King Day.
6. Respect human rights from day one. The U.N. has enacted
Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official
and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid
groups are extremely powerful in Haiti — they too must respect the
human dignity and human rights of all people.
[Ed. Note: For more on the U.N.’s Guiding Principles, see the Institute’s January 2008 report.]
7. Apologize to
the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.
8. Release all
Haitians in U.S. jails who are not accused of any crimes. Thirty thousand people are facing
deportations. No one will be deported to Haiti for years to come. Release them on
Martin Luther King Day.
9. Require that
all the non-governmental organizations that raise money in the U.S. be transparent about what they raise and where
the money goes, and insist that they be legally accountable to the people of Haiti.
10. Treat all
Haitians as we ourselves would want to be treated.
Bill Quigley is legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. A friend of the Institute for Southern Studies and longtime contributor to Facing South, Quigley is a Katrina survivor who has been active in human rights work for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.