Yvon Neptune - Inter-American System Proceedings

Inter-American System Proceedings

In April 2005, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti filed a petition on Mr. Neptune's behalf with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington. In July 2006, the Commission ruled that the Government of Haiti's treatment of Mr. Neptune violated his international human rights. The Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States based in San José, Costa Rica, for further proceedings.

On May 6, 2008, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State of Haiti violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights by illegally imprisoning former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune for two years and allowing the case to drag on in the courts for almost two more. The IACHR ordered Haiti to end what it called Mr. Neptune’s continuing “judicial insecurity” and to pay him $95,000 in damages and costs. The Court also ordered Haiti to start bringing its inhumane prisons in line with minimum international standards within two years.

“From the beginning, the State failed its obligation to protect Mr. Neptune’s right to be heard by a court competent to hear the charges against him…as well as to an effective recourse,” the IACtHR said in a 60-page judgment issued publicly on June 6. The Court denounced the State’s continued failure to bring Neptune before a qualified judge, thereby leaving him in a situation of “absolute judicial uncertainty.”

The IACtHR criticized nearly every aspect of Haiti’s prosecution of Neptune, which began in June 2004 and continues today. It found Neptune’s 25-month-long detention illegal, and the prison conditions he endured to be inhumane and degrading. Although Neptune has been out of prison since July 2006, the IACHR found that the violations of his rights continue because the case has not been dismissed, and he could be returned to prison at any time. The Court also condemned the State’s ongoing failure to provide Neptune a fair hearing. The ongoing violations amount to “an unjustifiable delay in access to justice,” the Court decided.

The IACHR found numerous other violations of Neptune’s human rights. Given the state courts’ lack of jurisdiction, Neptune’s rights against illegal imprisonment and arbitrary detention were violated. Because Neptune was jailed for 14 months before receiving a statement of the charges against him, the State violated his right to be informed within a reasonable time of the charges against him. And because the case against him has still not been resolved—more than four years after Mr. Neptune was imprisoned—the State stands in violation of Neptune’s right to be judged within a reasonable amount of time.

Haiti also violated Neptune’s rights by subjecting him to inhumane prison conditions, the IACHR found. The Court singled out the National Penitentiary’s overcrowding, squalor, and lack of general security, as well as multiple threats to Mr. Neptune’s life during his incarceration.

In total, the State violated 11 different provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Court found. These are: Article 1.1, on the State’s duty to respect and ensure human rights; Articles 5.1, 5.2, and 5.4, concerning the right to humane treatment; Articles 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 7.5, concerning the right to personal liberty; and Article 8.1, in conjunction with Art. 25, on the right to a fair trial and the right to judicial protection.