Haiti’s tenuous steps toward police and judicial reform cannot succeed unless the overcrowded, insecure prison system is also overhauled. More than 5,000 prisoners are jammed into a tiny fraction of what is internationally-recommended minimum space, but only 10 per cent have been convicted; many have yet to be charged. A dangerous cycle has begun of “managing” the crisis through uncontrolled releases, even acceptance of escapes, which adds to the broader problems of impunity and insecurity that have undercut confidence in rule-of-law. The Préval government and donors should urgently finance and build secure prisons, hire more guards and put the most dangerous offenders in maximum security cells.
3 May 2007
South East Asia’s largest jihadi organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah, is undergoing a consolidation phase and remains a major security threat, though it is presently focused more on local than Western targets.
30 April 2007
Peace in Darfur will remain elusive unless the international community adjusts its approach toward Khartoum and secures a more effective peacekeeping force to protect civilians but also breathes new life into the moribund peace process.
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, with over 130 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
