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Moral and political grounds for the UN mission in Haiti

01/04/2008 By Eduardo Aldunate Herman

Haiti is consistently listed among the world’s poorest performing countries in terms of social and economic development. For decades the 8.3 million inhabitants of this troubled Caribbean state have lived in chaos and anarchy, with rampant violence, poverty, water shortages, HIV-AIDS, illiteracy and unemployment all among the features of day-to-day life.

In this Comment article General Brigadier Eduardo Aldunate, the former Military Second in Command of United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), explores the complex problems facing the country and asks what the international community must do in order to address the challenges that lie ahead.

He emphasises that progress has been made in some areas, but underlines that the problems are as profound as they are complicated and a great deal remains to be done.

Several generations of Haitians have only ever known poverty and violence. That reality is more than reason enough to justify our concern and the efforts to do something positive for the people there. The hope they have put in the blue berets, that tomorrow will be a better day, demands a response.

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Keywords

Conflict resolution Development Fragile state Haiti Latin America & Caribbean Peacekeeping

Related publications

• Haiti and the international donor community
• Haiti: voices of the actors, a research project on the UN mission
• Security in Haiti
• South American Intervention in Haiti
• The United Nations and Spain in Haiti

Bio author: Eduardo Aldunate Herman

Former Military Second in Command of United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti MINUSTAH)