Holy See supports Haiti’s push for UN peacekeeping
The Organization of American States (OAS) adopts a resolution supporting the Haitian government’s request for a UN-backed peacekeeping mission to help stabilize the country. Speaking to the Organization following the resolution, Archbishop Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, permanent observer of the Holy See to the OAS, amplified Pope Francis’ calls for peace on the island.
By Phoebe Martel
Since 2018, the Haitian people have suffered from socio-political collapse and an accelerating humanitarian crisis, with 700,000 people displaced across the island nation.
On November 13, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution to support the Haitian Democratic Transition Council’s request for a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
The OAS, headquartered in Washington, DC, is a multinational federation of 35 states in the Americas. The organization aims to promote democratic freedoms and carry out electoral monitoring functions in the Western Hemisphere.
In a speech supporting the resolution, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the OAS, Archbishop Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, called on the international community to demonstrate a “broader commitment” to peacebuilding efforts in Haiti .
“The Holy See reiterates, once again, its closeness to the Haitian people,” declared Mgr Serrano.
The current crisis in Haiti has its roots in the island nation’s structural poverty, coupled with widespread corruption and repression of protesters that culminated in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.
A series of unstable transitional governments have created a power vacuum in the capital, Port-au-Prince, now at the center of an ongoing and increasingly deadly gang war. Gang violence has claimed many civilian lives, with at least 115 residents of a small Haitian town massacred in early October.
The OAS resolution and Haiti’s push for a formal UN peacekeeping operation follow the deployment of a Kenyan-led security mission, hampered by insufficient funding and a under-equipped. A UN deployment could use more systematic processes and international funds to end gang violence.
Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about the difficult situation in Haiti, urging the world stage to “never forget our Haitian brothers and sisters.” Catholic organizations, including Caritas Internationalis, and Haitian dioceses continue to work on humanitarian aid on the island, providing shelter, food and clean water to its citizens fleeing violence.
