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Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

First Page

241

Abstract

This symposium encompasses human rights issues in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, after its devastating earthquake in January 2010 - its problems with governance, human trafficking, dealing with displaced populations, and rebuilding. This article examines an issue that may cut across all of those topics. It is important to reform, stabilize, and enforce property rights in order to provide a basis for protecting individual rights and economic freedom, and to promote government stability and economic development in Haiti's rebuilding efforts. The right of private ownership of property to be free from unreasonable expropriation and confiscation by rulers was first enunciated in the Magna Carta of 1215 The United Nations (UN) reinforces the issue of property rights and economic development in Article 55 of its Charter as an important international human rights law. In the Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1948, the UN proclaimed a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. Property rights are contained in Article 17, which states: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. The principal purpose of this article is to (1) examine the legal rights to private ownership of property and (2) suggest specific steps to modify existing Haitian law and practices to develop a stable, transparent property regime for Haiti. My underlying premise is that without resolution of the Haitian property issues there is little hope for sustained economic development and growth, and without economic change, there is almost no hope for combating poverty, increasing educational opportunities, or improving health and developing infrastructure. Haiti has many problems that retard and delay economic improvement in addition to property rights, but they are outside the purposes and scope of this article.

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