The decree governing the organization and operation of the High Court of Justice, provided for under Article 185 of the Constitution, is necessary but ill-timed, given the fact that three of the signatories to the text have been charged in a case of alleged corruption. Moreover, the decree reinforces the idea that the fight against corruption is retreating rather than advancing in Haiti, explained attorney Patrick Laurent on Magik 9 on Friday, December 26, 2025.

A necessary text, a suspicious context

“The decision was taken in a context that is, to say the least, suspicious, even though there was a legal necessity,” Laurent said. As far back as 2008, a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, seized in a case involving former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune—over which the Gonaïves Court of Appeal had declared itself incompetent—required the Haitian State to take measures toward the adoption of an “implementing law on the High Court of Justice.” Measures which, until now, had never been implemented, he noted.