"I am devastated to announce that our colleague Mario Joseph passed away last night following a car accident," wrote Brian Concannon, President of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), in a note to IJDH and BAI staff shared with Le Nouvelliste on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.

"There are so many ways to measure the depth of this loss. I have lost a close friend and my main collaborator for 29 years. The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux mourns the loss of its leader. The Institute for Justice and Democracy mourns the loss of its principal partner. Haiti has lost its most prominent human rights lawyer at a time when fundamental rights are being severely violated. The global human rights movement has lost an inspiring leader at a time when the very notion of human rights is under broad attack," the IJDH director stated.