Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)
Human rights lawyer and activist Brian Concannon is the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). Brian is a trusted voice on human rights in Haiti and US policy to its oldest neighbor, through his writing and speaking to a wide range of audiences. But he is most proud of his work helping Haitian human rights advocates make their own voices heard, from the lawyers at the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux to the victims of the UN cholera in Haiti. Brian lived and worked in Haiti from 1995 to 2004, first with the United Nations, and after 1996 with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port-au-Prince. He returned to the US to start IJDH in 2004, when a US-supported coup d’etat overthrew Haiti’s elected government and demonstrated that no progress in Haiti would be sustainable unless the US and other powerful countries respected Haitian sovereignty. Brian is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Middlebury College. He held a Brandeis International Fellowship in Human Rights, Intervention and International Law from 2001-2003, and was a 2005-06 Wasserstein Public Interest Law Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)
IJDH has successfully helped Haitians enforce their human rights since 2004. The Institute partners with BAI to support grassroots struggles for justice in Haiti and in the powerful countries abroad where decisions about Haitians’ rights are often made. IJDH and BAI combine traditional legal strategies with organizing, emerging technology and public advocacy to address the root causes of instability and poverty in Haiti. We fight for justice with routinely excellent legal work, but also with creativity, humility, inspiration and humor, and a supportive work culture. We effect broad changes with modest resources by nurturing large advocacy networks. Notable achievements include: •Representation of 5,000+ Haitian victims of cholera in a class action lawsuit against the United Nations, in pursuit of justice and accountability for the UN’s direct role in causing the October 2010 outbreak. This case is currently in the appeals process; •A 2014 appeals court decision reinstating charges of torture, murder and other crimes against former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier; •Convictions in twelve of sixteen rape cases that reached trial 2012-2014; •Successful prosecution of the Raboteau Massacre, a 1994 military/paramilitary attack on a pro-democracy neighborhood, that convicted the top military and paramilitary leadership of Haiti’s 1991-1994 “de facto” dictatorship. Among the convicted is the highest-ranked officer ever deported from the U.S. on human rights grounds; •Important training for social justice lawyers, who have used their training to advance human rights in Haiti, the U.S., and throughout the world; BAI/IJDH’s work has been featured in several award-winning documentaries, a Harvard University case study, and is the focus of the 2014 book How Human Rights Can Build Haiti.