Danica Coto

The U.N has a long history of surging and retracting in Haiti.  The new UN backed international force has received pledges of more than 5,500 soldiers and police with Chadians already in Port-au-Prince to replace the Kenyans.  While pledges don't always turn into commitments, this is at least a positive sign that numerous countries are willing to provide human or financial resources to help re-establish security.  Elections, recovery, and longer-term development all depend on it.  Deployments of new staff will reportedly continue from fall until the end of the year.  Given how long Haitians have suffered, this is welcome news.  The full AP article is linked and below. 

There is no justice without a functioning judicial system and Haiti's is broken.  Prisons are sorely over-crowded in part due to 80% of inmates being held for years with no trial.  In addition, activists report a distrubing increase in illegal preventive detentions.  Judges are few, overwhelmed, and often threatened.  Haiti remains a fragile democracy and will remain so without justice and the rule of law.  If the judicial system improves, then we will know that Haiti is, at last, changing for better.  The full article by AP journalists Evens Sanon and Danica Coto is linked and follows below. 

The government of the Dominican Republic recently passed a nationality law which, by no means perfect, represents a step forward in addresssing statelessness.  The main difficulty now lies in its full implementation across the country.  Below is an article by Associated Press writers Ezequiel Abiu Lopez and Danica Coto that notes both positive and negative reactions to the nationality law.