Today, Canada will host an emergency meeting in Montreal to draw a longer-term rebuilding plan for Haiti. On the table will certainly be a governance formula to assist Haitians on their road out of the current catastrophe and towards a viable stable and prosperous democracy. Haitian governance history has been fraught with disappointments since its independence in 1804, and more recently since the early 1990s. (credit for photo at left of Haiti's national palace post-earthquake).A sustainable government is requisite as a care taker of not only ordinary and daily affairs for its citizens, but in Haiti’s case – an island geographically prone to nature’s onslaughts – also as a manager capable to face similar frequent challenges. At this backdrop, one wonders whether the current disaster and crisis, and the Monday international meeting, offer an opportunity to dust off the idea of international trusteeship and reconsider at least its partial revival in a fashion adapted to 21st century’s reality.
A long forgotten tool, the Trusteeship Council figures as one of the UN six main permanent organs. True, the historical circumstances prevailing at the time of the Charter’s adopti
on, namely post World War II decolonization, mostly no longer apply. Nevertheless, elements of the chief rationale underlying the two UN international trusteeship chapters XII and XII are as valid today as they were then. Equally true is that the trusteeship concept leaves a bad taste associated with past colonial misfortunes and coupled with fear of lurking neo-colonialism. To counter these concerns however, one should refer to the rich "acquis international", the extant body of international law accumulating since decolonization and designed to reassure newly independent states and peoples of their sovereignty, human rights, equality among the family of nations, to mention a few among the legal safeguards adopted since 1945. In this context, an international trusteeship concept, reconfigured and revamped, is worth giving a try.Let’s face it. It is not a secret that Canadian assistance to Haiti was conceptualized to support the “establishment of a functioning state architecture” of a state loosely characterized as “fragile and failed”. As it currently stands, Haiti is not only fragile; it effectively lacks a functioning government, and some time will pass until such is re-instituted. Although legally sovereign, what is left after the earthquake is a government unable to discharge its duty of carrying out the attached jurisdiction. In a way, factually, Haiti’s sovereignty has been suspended. Some form of legal authority and institution must step in to fill the vacuum.
UN trusteeship is currently unavailable to Haiti because this system does not apply to members of the UN. Nevertheless, the spirit and the provisions laid down in both the UN Charter trusteeship chapters offer guidelines worthwhile embracing. These provisions are expressly instructed by Article 76.b. which lists among its objectives
to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned and may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement.
Some form of an “international partnership based trusteeship”, managed by a council made up of the Friends of Haiti and the participants in Monday’s meeting, and chaired by Haiti’s Prime Minister therefore offers a reasonable and workable governance solution.
Transitional internationally administered territories (TIAT) have featured as an important tool used by the UN in handling “governance gap” type of challenges in the Balkans, Africa, East an
d South East Asia, and Afghanistan. In many respects, they have mirrored the trusteeship concept quite closely. However, due to their ad hoc nature, knowledge gained from this valuable tool has been dispersed across UN bodies and documents, contributing members’ archives, academic publication, and the like. The benefit of an already extant UN permanent organ lies in its availability to operate as an institutional hub for such information and administrator for the purpose of drawing lessons for use in future similar cases. Therefore, while it will not be a surprise if TIAT becomes the next title of a post-earthquake formula for Haiti, it would be advisable to re-use the good offices of an already available UN trusteeship organ. The Trusteeship Council designated as custodian of a central library and home to assess, research, and educate about international trusteeship-like experiences is a first step towards rejuvenating and re-inventing this old institution.
