Protest Planned: Against Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
In a letter addressed to Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Todd Howland, the Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, Center for Human Rights, called on the bank to disburse loans to the government of Haiti by the end of this year.
Highlighting the fact that these loans have been approved for years, and ratified by the Haitian government since December 2000, Howland accused the IDB and its member states of "participating in a de-facto sanctions regime which violates human rights law".
Article 19 of the Haitian constitution of 1987 states that the government of Haiti will provide health care to the citizens of Haiti. In 1998, in an attempt to fulfill this obligation the government applied for a 22.5 million dollar loan to strengthen its health care system. This loan was approved the same year. The parliament of Haiti ratified the loan in December 2000. According to staff of the IDB bank and Haitian government officials, some money could have been disbursed between January and March 2001, but it was not. Since then one bureaucratic problem after another seems to have held-up the funds. "People die every day of treatable and preventable diseases," Howland explained in his letter.
A protest has been planned for 19 November 2002 at 7:30 AM in front of the headquarters of the IDB. The demonstration aims to put pressure on the Inter-American Development Bank, and its member states. The protest is in support of the Haitian people and the efforts of the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate Ms. Loune Viaud. Viaud is the Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at the Partners in Health socio-medical complex in Cange, Haiti and strongly advocates the human right of access to health care.
Organizers include Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center, Partners in Health (PIH) and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. The protest will be transformed into a joint press conference, attended by all of the concerned organizations, and the government of Haiti, if a commitment to disburse the money by the end of the year is forthcoming.
Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Senator Edward Kennedy and Harry Belafonte will participate in the award ceremony for Ms. Viaud in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on 20 November 2002 at 10:00 AM. Journalists are welcome to attend.
Note to producers, bookers, editors: Loune Viaud will be available for interviews on 19 November and 21 November. She will be traveling with Dr. Jim Y. Kim, Director, Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Kim was the Executive Director of Partners in Health (PIH) until last year and is now a Trustee of PIH. For interviews with Ms. Viaud and Mr. Kim, for more background material, the "Legal Briefing" or the Patient Bill of Rights, please contact Lee Woodyear (ext. 232) or Monika Kalra (ext. 228) at the RFK Memorial (202) 463-7575.
