Renan Hedouville, Protector of the Citizen, expresses his deepest concern at the inaction of the Ministry of National Education, concerning the implementation of the law of 24 September 2001 prohibiting corporal punishment of children.

The Office of Citizen Protection (OPC) reminds the Minister of National Education, Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet, that the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates in its Article 19 "States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child".

As a result, Renan Hedouville finds it unacceptable that Pierre Richard Émile a substitute teacher at the Lycée Horacius Lavemure, can benefit from the complaisance of the Ministry and continue to circulate freely, after having, on October 4, 2018 inflicted a punishment accompanied by corporal punishment to a 15-year-old student girl in the school compound, pupil who left with a left eye marbled with blood and bruises.

Faced with this fact, Renan Hedouville, while recalling that we are no longer in the era of "Timoun se ti bét", is asking the Haitian State via the Ministry of National Education to apply administrative sanctions and to commit criminal proceedings against not only the faulty teacher, but also any other employee of that establishment who was alleged to have been an accomplice to this degrading action on a pupil.

The OPC would like the Ministry to follow up on this case submitted to the Minister Cadet for an assessment on December 14, 2018, which unfortunately remained unanswered.

In addition, Renan Hedouville reminded Minister Cadet, that this neglect to apply the law and the existence of school corporal punishment in Haiti, may have serious consequences in March 2019, during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) .

HL/ HaitiLibre