Haiti THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Figure 16. Civil Jurisdictions and Governmental Institutions of
Haiti, 1989
Haitian heads of state have often drafted and abolished
the
nation's constitutions at will, treating the documents as
their
own personal charters. However, when the 1987 Constitution
replaced the Duvalierist 1983 constitution, the popular
referendum that ratified the Constitution was free and
fair; it
demonstrated widespread support for the new document.
Nevertheless, the interim governments have not taken the
provisions of the Constitution seriously. Through a simple
presidential decree, Namphy suspended the document in
1988, and
Avril only partially reinstated it in 1989.
The 1987 Constitution is a modern, progressive,
democratic
document. It guarantees a series of basic rights to the
citizenry. It declares the intent to establish democracy
in
Haiti, and it includes ideological pluralism, electoral
competition, and the separation of powers. Several
provisions
seek to reshape the system and the political tradition
bequeathed
to the nation by the Duvaliers. In particular, the
Constitution
reduces the president's constitutional powers,
decentralizes
governmental authority, and establishes elected councils
for
local government. Police and army functions are
disaggregated.
The Constitution also establishes an independent judiciary
and
subordinates military personnel to civilian courts in all
cases
that involve civilians. Under the Constitution,
individuals are
barred from public office for ten years if they have
served as
"architects" of the Duvalierist dictatorship, enriched
themselves
from public funds, inflicted torture on political
prisoners, or
committed political assassinations. The Constitution
abolishes
the death penalty and focuses on the protection of civil
rights
through detailed restrictions on the arrest and the
detainment of
citizens. It calls for the establishment of a career civil
service based on merit and for job security, and it
recognizes
both Creole and French as official languages.
The Constitution establishes three major branches of
government--legislative, executive, and judicial--and
notes that
these branches are essential to a civil state and that
they must
be independent of each other. Legislative powers are
vested in
two chambers, the House of Deputies and the Senate.
Deputies and
senators are elected by direct suffrage. Deputies
represent
municipalities (or communes), and senators represent
geographic
departments
(see
fig. 16).
In the executive branch, the president of the republic
serves
as head of state. A prime minister, chosen by the
president from
the majority party in the legislature, heads the
government.
Other components of the executive branch include cabinet
ministers and secretaries of state.
The judiciary consists of the Court of Cassation
(supreme
court), courts of appeal, and other smaller courts. The
president
appoints judges on the basis of lists submitted by various
elected bodies, including the Senate and departmental and
municipal assemblies.
The Constitution also provides for several special
institutions and autonomous governmental offices that
include the
CEP, the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative
Disputes,
the Conciliation Commission (a body responsible for
settling
disputes between executive and legislative branches and
between
the two houses of the legislature), the Office of Citizen
Protection (an ombudsman organization established to
protect
citizens against abuse by the government), the State
University
of Haiti, the Haitian Academy (responsible for
standardizing the
Creole language), and the National Institute of Agrarian
Reform.
The Constitution contains a number of provisions
intended to
guide the country during transitions between elected
governments.
These provisions include the creation of an electoral
council
with sufficient autonomy to hold local and national
elections,
free of outside interference. The Constitution calls for
the
replacement of the provisional council by a permanent
electoral
council following a transition to civilian government.
When General Avril reinstated the Constitution in March
1989,
he created an electoral council according to the
constitutional
formula, but he also temporarily suspended thirty-eight
articles.
Under the partially restored Constitution, the president
of the
military government could exercise power until a
presidential
election was organized. Legislative powers were similarly
suspended pending elections. The suspended constitutional
elements included Article 42-1, Article 42-2, and Article
42-3,
which require the trial of military personnel in civilian
courts
for charges of high treason or of conflicts and abuses
involving
civilians. Other suspended articles refer to the
constitutional
separation of powers among the executive, the legislative,
and
the judicial branches of government and the military.
These
suspensions immunized military personnel against legal
charges
stemming from the constitutional protection of citizen
rights.
They also allowed the military to carry out activities
that the
Constitution reserved for the executive or the legislative
branches.
Data as of December 1989
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