Loune Viaud (Haiti, 2002)
Rewarded for her innovative human rights based approach to establishing healthcare systems in Haiti, Loune Viaud, Director of Strategic Planning at Zanmi Lasante, received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2002. Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, with the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates. During a period when the international community did not believe impoverished and illiterate communities could be treated for AIDS, Loune and her colleagues at Zanmi Lasante/Partners In Health implemented one of the most effective HIV/AIDS programs in the world. Using a rights-based approach, Zanmi Lasante also provides health care to hundreds of thousands of Haitians. Loune was honored, not only for her groundbreaking work in AIDS treatment, but for advocating that health, access to medicine, and clean water are all fundamental rights, and working with the local government and citizens to build the government’s capacity to respond to those human rights.
RFK Center has been working with Loune since 2002 to transform the international community’s interventions in Haiti, many of which undermine human rights, including the right to health. Loune’s primary concern has been to address the flow of international donor and loan funds into Haiti, because the lack of coordination with local entities undermined the Haitian government’s ability to fulfill its human rights obligations. Although the Haitian Constitution guarantees the right to health and education, ineffective international assistance meant that the Government of Haiti lacked the resources to either educate its people or effectively care for their health. Accordingly, RFK Center projects and advocacy work focuses on the human right obligations and accountability of international interveners in Haiti.
For more information, please contact Monika Kalra Varma (202) 463-7575 x228, monika@rfkmemorial.org
Resources and Documents:
| The Guardian (UK) OpEd: America Keeping Haiti Down
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| Release: RFK Center Releases Documents Outlining US Actions to Block Life-saving Funds to Haiti
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| Report Chapter: From Wòch nan Soley, LOANS AND WATER: THE Inter-American Development Bank Link (On US and IDB Role):
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| New York Times Article: Rights Groups Assail US for Withholding Aid to Haiti
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| The Voice (UK) Article: Haiti: US 'witholding money needed for clean water'
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| TruthDig Article: US withholds loans in water-starved Haiti
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| Miami Herald Article: U.S. behind Haiti's water woes, rights activists charge
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| Upside Down World Article: Bush Administration Accused of Withholding "Lifesaving" Aid to Haiti
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| Release: Rights Groups Launch Groundbreaking Report on Right to Water in Haiti
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| Report: Wòch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti
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| Invite: RFK Center, ZanmiLasante/Partners in Health, and the NYU Human Rights Clinic Right to Water Release Event in NYC
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| Release: As Rising Food Prices Ignite Social Unrest in Haiti, Members of Congress, Religious Leaders, Development Advocates Urge Immediate Debt Cancellation
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| IPS Article: HAITI: Singing for the Poor (features RFK Center)
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| Submission to U.S. House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Committee on Foreign Affairs on Haiti's Interim Cooperation Framework
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| Article on PIH Website: RFK Center report from Cange Health and Human Rights Symposium
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| JURIST Column: Human Rights is Not Just Charity in Haiti by RFK Staff
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| Release: U.S.-Based Organizations: Full Debt Cancellation for Haiti Needed Immediately
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| AP Article: RFK Center Sues U.S. For Information on Haiti Loans
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| <a href="/legacyinaction/2002_TreasCompl/"><b>Release</b>: RFK Memorial Takes Treasury Department to Court to Determine US Role in Denying Loans Vital to Haiti’s Perilous Public Health</a>
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| Testimony and Documents: Human Rights Abuses in Haiti and Role of the Organization of American States
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| Toronto Star Article: Article on UN Mission to Haiti with comments from CHR Director
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| Policy Proposal: Alternative Funding Mechanisms for Rights-based Community Projects in Haiti
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| Policy Proposal: Alternative Funding Mechanisms for Rights-based Community Projects in Haiti
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| Trinidad and Tobago Express Op-Ed: "Negotiate a solution for Haiti" by CHR Director Todd Howland
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| Boston Globe Op-Ed: "In Haiti, its rhetoric over rights" by Howland
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| RFK Center Briefing: Reevaluating the UN Stablization Mission to Haiti: Illegal nature of mission will lead to a failed intervention in Haiti
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| RFK Center Briefing: A Framework for a Multi-faceted U.N. Peace-Building Mission to Haiti (April 7, 2004)
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| RFK Center Briefing: The Need for a United Nations Peace-Building Mission to Haiti (March 8, 2004)
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| Cange Declaration: Patient's Bill of Rights
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| Profile: Loune Viaud
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| Biography: Loune Viaud
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| Update:International Development Bank Loan Status
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| Letter to Foreign Ministers of the European Union: Lifting of sactions on Haiti
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| Speech: Senator Edward M. Kennedy on Loune Viaud of Haiti at RFK Human Rights Award
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| Speech: Kerry Kennedy on Loune Viaud of Haiti at RFK Human Rights Award
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| Audio: Harry Belafonte at the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Ceremony
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| Speech: Loune Viaud, 2002 Human Rights Award Laureate
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| Human Rights Award Ceremony Program
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| Release:Protest Planned Against Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
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| Letter to IDB President: On behalf of Haitian supporters
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| Quotes: Concerning Loune Viaud, the Inter-American Development Bank and Haiti
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| Haiti Fact Sheet
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