On October 21, 2022, the United Nations Security Council announced that it had established a Haiti sanctions regime to target individuals and entities responsible for or complicit in actions that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the country. The restrictive measures include a targeted arms embargo, travel bans, and asset freezes.
The Security Council also unanimously decided to adopt resolution 2653 (2022), which establishes a Committee consisting of all members of the Security Council’s 15-member organ to oversee implementation of the restrictive measures. In addition, the Council requested that the Secretary-General create a panel of four experts to assist the Committee in carrying out its mandate for an initial period of 13 months. While the Council pledged to continuously review the situation in Haiti and the appropriateness of the measures imposed, it also requested that the Secretary-General, with the assistance of the panel of experts, conduct an assessment of the regime’s progress no later than September 15, 2023.
The Security Council also called for the violence, criminal activities, and human rights abuses in Haiti to immediately stop, including an immediate cessation of the “kidnappings, sexual and gender-based violence, trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, and homicides, extrajudicial killings and recruitment of children by armed groups and criminal networks.” It also encouraged Haiti’s political actors to engage in meaningful discussions in an effort to overcome the current political stalemates, and allow “inclusive, free and fair legislative and presidential elections” to take place in Haiti as soon as possible.
UN Security Council Press Release I | UN Security Council Press Release II