Redisplacing the displaced in Haiti

 

flikr, Lee Cohen

By Elizabeth Gibson

When the police arrived at Haiti’s Camp Django this summer, they started negotiations by offering money to anyone willing to relocate. It went downhill from there.

                 

When earthquake refugees told the police that $125 each was not enough to find new shelter, the police grew more forceful. A man was knocked to the ground, a woman beaten. Panic set in.

“Everyone started running, so I did too, until I was out of the camp. I later called home and learned that the police broke into my shelter and kicked out my seven-year-old son,” one camp resident described.

Environmental Human Rights: Will the US Come on Board?

by Elizabeth Gibson

Most Americans probably assume that if a factory opened in their neighborhood and started discharging a toxic cloud, the government would turn up and yank the company’s permits. In reality, although the international community has increasingly recognized a human right to a sound environment, U.S. law is not always as helpful as one might think.