Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network

The Haitian Lawyers Leadership is a Haitian-led capacity building organization that brings together a network of lawyers, artists, students, Haitian activists, cultural experts, workers and human rights organizations, advocates, government officials and progressive radio, press and media outlets to support and work cooperatively with Haitian freedom fighters and grassroots organizations promoting the civil, human and cultural rights of Haitians living at home and abroad.

Since its founding by pro-democracy and human rights activist attorney and performance poet, Marguerite Laurent in 1994, the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network has:

1. Supported those who are working to institutionalize democracy and the rule of law in Haiti;

2. Written a judicial reform agenda for Haiti;

3. Assisted in countering the corporate media's mass disinformation, fabrications, colonial narrative and smear campaign against the Haitian people, their 506-year struggle against Euro/US enslavement, dependency and containment-in-poverty;

4. Promoted solidarity amongst the world's victim of Empire as well as called for a true pan-Americanism hemispheric agenda that is inclusive of the masses;

5 . Were the first to assist in drafting and promoting a procedure for Haitians living abroad, who were born in Haiti and have not renounced their Haitian citizenship, to be able to cast their votes for local and national elections in Haiti. (A concern that still remains an HLLN priority);

6 . Assisted in drafting and in promoting a dual citizenship law in Haiti. (A concern that has now been superceded by other HLLN priorities);

7 . Promoted Haiti as the first to struggle for, not only Pan-African solidarity, but also Pan-Americanism in that Haiti was the first to put "Liberty-and-equality-into-application" when the U.S. Constitution was still declaring Black people as 3/5ths human; and as Haiti was the first, in this Western Hemisphere to help liberate five Latin American countries from the shackles of slavery and Empire; and

In, general, the Haitian Lawyers Leadership is an organization dedicated to establishing the Haitian people's:

- right to life

-to dignity

- to a non-Pepe education

- to eat

- to clean water

- to live free from state-sponsored terror

- to health care

- to passable roads

- to social inclusion

- to develop their own domestic economy

- to choose their own leaders

- right to travel

-to equal protection and civil rights abroad, and not to be automatically repatriated or subject to indefinite detention;

- the right to establish a Haitian system of justice and rule of law in Haiti without organizations, like IRI, NED, USAID, U.S Embassy, European Union or others, imposing phony civil society fronts, arming Haitian mercenaries, or financing opposition Haitian press, media and radio outlets expressly to undermine Haiti's democratic efforts and empowerment of the mass electorate.

- the right and respect for the one-person-one vote principle without such foreign and dollar diplomacy intervention

-the right to use Haiti's resources to help the passport-less Haitian peasant and urban dweller

-right to protect Haitian agriculture from fraudulent "free trade" globalization policies



The Haitian Lawyer's Leadership also stands for:

Respect for the Haitian people's uniquely Haitian and Afrocentric culture;

Respect for Vodun and the freedom of religion,

and most of all,

The Haitian Lawyers Leadership is dedicated to mobilizing the entire Haitian population, of all hues, creeds, classes and political affiliations, to LOOK OUTWARDS TOGETHER in order to break the Euro/U.S cycle of debt, dependency and foreign domination, (started with the 1825 Haitian reparations paid to France and, before that, with ecclesiastical colonialism,) that traditionally foments chaos, empass, incites violence and strums Haitian division, polarization, fratricide, and, that is primarily responsible for the containment-in-poverty the entire Haitian populist has had to endure and the, now, 33+ violent Coup D'etat/regime changes the Haitian people have had to survive, endure and overcome.

In 1926 during the first US occupation of Haiti, Normil Sylvain observed:

“I know they throw the history of Haiti in our face – its long tissue of
revolutions and massacres. Yet the American war with the Cacos killed more
people than 10 or 20 revolutions put together; it devastated whole regions
and ruined the cattle of Haiti, as veterinary experts can testify if they are
honest. Revolutions were fomented by foreigners – English, French, American,
Dutch traders – who risked nothing, and always profited. Loans which dealt
rather in human lives than in merchandise were made at rates of 1,000 per
cent and those who thus enriched themselves overthrew any government that was not subservient to them.”

–excerpt from a letter written by Dr. Normil Sylvain, a Haitian, in 1926 to
Emily Balch who led a delegation of the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom to Haiti to observe the effects of the US occupation.

Not much has changed in terms of the Euros and Americans inciting violence in order to profit in Haiti and rectify the humiliation Haitian handed the French in 1804. The situation in Haiti, since the US-imposed Latorture regime, followed by the occupation of Haiti by the UN in 2004, in terms of Haiti security, human rights, economy, the judiciary have become 10 to 20 times worst than it was when Haiti was un-occupied by foreigners.

HLLN's basic mission and vision is encapsulated as follows:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"It is terribly cruel, grossly repugnant, inhuman and uncivilized for any human being, due to their nationality, Black race or revolutionary legacy to be forcibly incarcerated at home, by international laws and their applications solely to Haitians. Haitians are abused, coerced and forced to live without the freedom of association with other human beings worldwide and prevented from asserting the human soul's basic thirst to travel, expand or merely to witness Nature's global vastness, majesty and boundless beauty.

No human being is an alien. No law is justified that works to contain a nation of millions of Blacks on an Island for more than two hundred years because said people broke their US/Euro enslavement and are a bad example to other freedom lovers worldwide. Haitians have suffered enough isolation. There should be one Hemispheric Americas passport in addition to the nation-state passports. This would be true globalization.

Besides the right to travel freely, the freedom of association with other Haitians and other human beings worldwide - fair and equal access to world markets, loans, financial credits, the world's cultures, religions; fair and equal access to observe and absorb Nature's majesty, beauty and divinity; the right to live in dignity without local governmental repression or international/foreign interference; access to clean water, clean air, affordable housing, living wages, freedom of religion as well as, opportunities for fair and equal employment and basic health care - these, are basic human rights for Haitians, not charity. In Haiti, a Haitianist-designed education, legal and economic system to promote and protect Haitian society, sovereignty, spirituality, Vodun psychology, art, music and culture are a Haitians' birthright. The Haitian peoples' basic human, political, economic, property, travel, cultural and civil rights ought not be systematically eviscerated in the name of "free trade, justice, democracy or good governance" by the so-called "international community," or, systematically undermined by any foreign-designed and implemented "reform" or World Bank/IMF/IFC projects. Marguerite Laurent, Esq. Founder and Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, March 1995

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After the February 29, 2004 U.S. orchestrated Coup D'etat in Haiti, the Leadership Network established the 7 "Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou campaigns, the Ezili Danto Witness Project, the Press Work- Media Letter Writing Campaigns, the FreeHaitiMovement - Dessalines is Rising Worldwide to help restore constitutional rule, justice and independence to Haiti and to help inform the world of the true story behind the headlines - how the Haitian people's struggle, from 1994 to 2004, for a more just and participatory democracy was transformed, by U.S. policymakers and the "international community" - in the name of democracy, justice, good governance - into the total lost of Haiti's basic human rights and national independence. The Internationals, these poverty pimps, under cover of "humanitarian aid" and helping a "failed state" are robbing, looting, pillaging and fleecing Haiti of its natural resources (cheap labor, taking over the Windward passage through Haiti's Mole St. Nicholas, looting the oil in La Gonave, gas reserves near Acquin, Haiti's gold mines, iridium deposits, uranium deposits, underwater treasures in Ile-à-Vâches and other locations, privatizing-to-foreigners Haiti's State owned companies and assets and further displacing the passport-less Haitian peasant and urban dweller with UN occupation, checkpoints, repressions and police raids that ultimately rob Haitians of not only their freedom, dignity and liberty but out of prime and oceanfront properties, et al). The Coup D'etat countries of the US, France and Canada are further containing the Haitian people in indefinite detention, building child prisons instead of schools and crushing a starving, systematically discriminated, abused and deprived nations under endless World Bank/IMF debts and calling this "democracy, justice and development."

The "Men Anpil Chap Pa Lou" Haitian Lawyers Leadership Working Committee members are:

Henri Alexandre, Esq., CT, 1983
Picard Losier, LLM, Taxation; JD, Licensed NY 1984 & PA, 1981
Maguy Duteau, Esq., NY, 1988
Bob Celestin, Esq, Licensed NY 1985
Lionel Jean Baptise, Esq, Licensed IL, 1991
Ulrick Gaillard, Esq.
Darwin Beauvais, Esq., 1993
Jean (Jafrikayiti) St. Vil, Restitution and Reparations, Campaign 7 Director
Professor Frantz Jerome, Executive Director of the Ezili Danto Witness Project
Chantal Laurent, Graphic Artist, HLLN's Website Designer and webmaster
David Laurent, Documentary Filmmaker, HLLN's Film and Video Producer/Editor for Ezili Danto Witness Project and FreeHaitiMovement

Marguerite Laurent, Esq. is founder and chair of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership network, dedicated to promoting the civil, human and cultural rights of Haitian at home and abroad. Marguerite Laurent has worked for more than ten years as an entertainment attorney within the music, recording, merchandising and independent film industries and is known as the hip hop lawyer and activist. She is an author, an award winning playwright and a performance poet who performs internationally and has presented at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the United Nations.

Ms. Laurent is an essayist and educator who specializes in teaching an “Art and Business Law” seminar class at colleges and universities. She also conducts workshops and residencies about the light and beauty of Haitian culture; the "Symbolic and archetypal nature of Haitian Vodun;" the illegality and immorality of forcing neoliberalism policies on Haiti and the developing world; the illegality and human rights violations caused by the current US/UN occupation of Haiti; the need for France to repay the extraordinary 1825 ransom it extorted from the Haitian people and the constant Euro-US hostility Haiti faces, endures and struggles to overcome as the first Black Republic in the world, after Ethiopia, in a Eurocentric world which purposely inflames instability, insecurity, impasse and chaos in the Black republics in order to better exploit their labor and natural resources. She is the artistic director of the Ezili Danto Spoken Word Theater Dance company. Her e-mail address is Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Men Anpil Chaj Pa Lou!!! -

Many Hands Make Light a Heavy Load!!!!

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“Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle.” Ralph Waldo Trine
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HLLN's Work
from the HLLN pamplet

"...HLLN dreams of a world based on principles, values, mutual respect, equal application of laws, equitable distribution, cooperation instead of competition and on peaceful co-existence and acts on it. We put forth these ideas, on behalf of voiceless Haitians, through a unique and unprecedented combination of art and activism, networking, sharing info on radio interviews, our Ezili Danto listserves and by circulating our original "Haitian Perspective" writings. We make presentations at congressional briefings and at international events, such as An Evening of Solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela.

With the Ezili Danto Witness Project, HLLN documents eyewitness testimonies of the common men and women in Haiti suffering, under this US-installed regime, the greatest forms of terror and exclusion since the days of slavery; conducts learning forums on Haiti (The "To-Tell-The-Truth-About-Haiti" Forums), and , in general, brings the voices against occupation, endless poverty and exclusion in Haiti directly to concerned peoples worldwide - people-to-people and then to governments officials, international policymakers, human rights organizations, journalists, the corporate and alternative media, schools and universities, solidarity networks. We are often quoted in major alternative and even the corporate papers and press influencing the current thinking of readers today."
HLLN, November 9, 2005.

See, The Nescafé machine, Common Sense, John Maxwell Sunday, November 06, 2005 , quoting HLLN's chairperson, Marguerite Laurent, Esq.

HLLN - Action Requested from Haiti solidarity groups and Haitian activists for justice and democracy (See, FreeHaitiMovement, Yearly Events below):

Circulate our Ezili Danto mailings and posts to your mailing list and e-mail contacts. Subscribe and unsubscribe by writing to: Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Read, adopt and circulate the yearly updated Haiti Resolutions*from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network. See also the Porto Alegre Declarations on Haiti adopted at the World Social Forum in January, 2005 and the *2004 Haiti Resolution.

Circulate HLLN's human rights reports.

Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns and media campaigns to help free the political prisoners in Haiti, stop the media vilification of the Haitian people, the persecution of Haiti's most popular political party and to restore Haitian sovereignty and Constitutional rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, - See our Press Work page for sample letters and contact information.

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Join HLLN's Media Campaign to FREE political prisoners in Haiti, protect the Feb. 7th vote and to stop media bearing false and racists witness to the plight of the people of Haiti

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HLLN's Media Campaign
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Investigate the electoral fraud: COUNT ALL THE VOTES!!!! HLLN'S "Protect the Feb. 7th vote and the "NO-protectorate-for-Haiti" campaign

Volunteer to maintain and send us updated or new phone numbers and addresses to put on our Contact Information Sheet pages for our Network's pressworks.

Virtual interns and volunteers are always needed to help us translate selected materials into French, Kreyol, or Spanish to reach a wider audience. Volunteers with some research and computer skills are also needed to help us update our "List of Victims" and "Personal Testimonies" pages under Campaign One. (We have the materials, what we don't have we know where to extrapolate them, but need help to put it together and in the format on our website page.)

Volunteers wanting to concentrate as primary coordinators/contributors to one of our seven campaigns.

One internet savvy volunteer interested in logging and archiving, on our new Ezili Danto blog, (not yet unveiled) the regular Erzilidanto posts we send out so that those who only want to see these at their leisure, or, who cannot receive daily mailings, will have access to these materials and posts, in an archived format.

Fundraise for the work of HLLN. Donate to our projects. Or, cover your expenses, save lives and spread meaning and value by becoming an HLLN Marketing Associate trained to train other HLLN Associates and licensed to use our logo and HLLN materials to sponsor a "To Tell The Truth about Haiti Forum and Teach-In." Proceeds from such courses and teach ins will go to pay the Associate and to continue the work of HLLN projects, such as, our partnership with AUMOHD, the young human rights lawyers in Haiti who are defending the defenseless poor whose only crime is that they voted for Lavalas, supported Constitutional rule or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained Haitian army, UN occupation and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on AUMOHD, go to: AUMOHD, May 3, 2006 press conference

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Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it:
See, the first US occupation and administration of Haiti and how, then too, President Wilson of the US called the US. marines exploits on behalf of New York bankers and multinationals, an exercize in "civilizing" and "developing" the "corrupt,," "failed" and "inept" blacks of Haiti....Charlemagne Pèralte Speaks!

- Inquiry into Occupation and Administration of Haiti," The U.S. Senate Investigates the Haitian Occupation interview Haitians about marine conduct in the guerrilla war against Haitian resistance.

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See Also:

Conclusions and Recommendations by the Commitee of Six Disinterested Americans

The People Were Very Peaceable": The U.S. Senate Investigates the Haitian Occupation

The Truth about Haiti: An NAACP Investigation
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“Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle.” Ralph Waldo Trine

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The 2006 Haiti Resolution
ANSWER THE CALL: Join the FreeHaitiMovement. Help protect the Feb. 7, 2006 Haitian vote

ANSWER THE CALL: Sponsor and endorser the FreeHaitiMovement/Haiti Resolution

To join our list of FreeHaitiMovement sponsors. Please send an e-mail to Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

To sponsor a FreeHaitiMovement yearly event (May 18, July 6, August 14 and Oct. 17): The Free Haiti Movement: Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide

FreeHaitiMovement ACTION REQUESTED: Sponsors are encouraged to endorse the Haiti Resolution, join HLLN's letter writing campaigns, (such as, our Media campaigns to stop the lies and fabrications and criminalizations of the poor majority in Haiti, "stop UN massacres in Site Soley" and the "free the political prisoners campaigns"). Endorsers are encouraged to sponsor a "To-Tell the truth about Haiti Forum", to sponsor teach-ins, rallies, picket-lines, vigils and lectures, throughout the year, but especially on May 18, Haiti's flag day, on July 6 to demand an end to the UN occupation, repressions and demand justice for the victims of the UN-Canadian-US-French/coup d'etat massacres in Haiti, on August 14 -the anniversary of Bwa Kayiman, the ceremony that begun the great Haitian revolution, and, on October 17th - the anniversary of Dessaline's death, and Haiti's very first coup d'etat. Sponsors and endorsers of the Haiti Resolutions and FreeHaitiMovement are encouraged to learn and teach their communities about Haiti's historical accomplishments. HLLN, shall provide, upon request, access to suggested written materials, audio and video streaming for internet and DVD distribution of testimony from victims and resisters of the coup d'etat; letter campaigns, media outreach campaigns; HLLN suggests the wearing and flying of the blue and red colors of Haiti; and, that each year, at least on May 18, July 6, August 14 and Oct. 17, sponsors and endorsers commit to fax, call-in and deliver to the French, Canadian and US Embassies and Consulates worldwide, the People of Haiti's demand that France, Canada, the US and the international community respect Haitian sovereignty, stop inflicting Haiti with their traditional "benevolence," racism, patriarchy and incessant corrupt intervention in Haiti's affairs, through foreign "aid" and debt.

Expose the Lies of the International Community about Haiti, its people and resources. Expose how under the cover of "Aristide-is-corrupt-refrain," with this weapon of mass distraction and Bush “regime change to bring Haiti justice and democracy," the powerful countries of France, Canada and US, with UN soldiers as their corporate army, have turned Haiti into a penal colony for the Haitians masses and are tying Haiti to endless IMF/World Bank debts while looting and plundering Haitian assets and resources. Demand the International coup d'etat supporing countries and enforcers, not Rene Preval, set the political prisoners free, end the UN occupation, return Haitian assets to the people of Haiti.

Sponsors are encouraged to support Haitian culture and artists. See Campaign 4: Art with soul.

See also Ezili Danto Spoken Word Dance Theater
The Premier Performance, Poetry, West African and Haitian Dance Company

Recommended Links

Master Haitian Dance Class Workshop
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/masterclass.mov

Teenage Haitian Dance Workshops
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/teendance.mov

Children Haitian Dance Workshops
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/childrendance.mov

Fun with Ezili Danto's "Art with the Ancestors"- Haitian song, dance, drumming and West African dance and drumming:

Haitian and West African Dance Troupe
Performance Clip 1
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/ablessy1.mov

Performance Clip 2
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/ablessy2.mov

Ezili Danto's Bwa Kayiman Dance Theatre play with master Haitian drummer, Frisner Augustin and Troupe Makandal
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/presskit/downloads/bwakayiman.mov

Ezili Danto Workshops and Residencies attached to Red Black & Moonlight series
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/workshops/workshops.html

Author and performance poet, M. Laurent at St. Martin Book Fair-June 1-3, 2006
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/photogallery/stmartinpg.html

Performance Poetry Clips
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/photogallery/stmperform.html

St. Martin BookFair Newspaper Clippings
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/photogallery/stmnewsclips.html


New Ezili Danto Publishings book and DVD for sale:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/merchandise.html

Vodun Woman: A Performance Poetry Collection by Marguerite Laurent ($20US)

Red, Black & Moonlight: Between Falling and Hitting the Ground ($20US)
(A 90-minute DVD of the one-woman, jazzoetry theatrical performance of
"Between Falling and Hitting the Ground from the Red, Black & Moonlight
series by Marguerite Laurent)

* HLLN call for investigation of electoral fraud to dilute the People's Feb. 7th vote - Some of the factors to be investigated:

There were fewer than 800 polling stations for the 2006 election, with no stations in Site Soley and the poorest areas, where President Aristide and President Préval's supporters live, compared with 12,000 polling stations in 2000 when the International Community wasn't in charge of Haiti's government and Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) as they are with the imposed Boca Raton regime.

Even without campaigning because of the coup d'etat repression and for fear of being thrown in jail to join the other Lavalas political prisoners, President Preval won by a clear LANDSLIDE, garnering four/five times more votes than the Coup D'etat candidates supported by the International Community - the next highest per cent reported after Préval was 12.8%. And, that’s not taking into consideration the burnt dumpster ballots, and blank-ballot stuffing which, if these were not a factor, could only increase Renè Préval’s proportion and reduce his coup d'etat opponents percentages.

HLLN insists on a full investigation into the Internationally-run and financed 2006 Haiti election, including discovering exactly where the ballots found in the dumpster came from? Why was the truck carrying the ballots to the dumpster for burning HIRED by the UN/MINUSTHA forces in charge of keeping ballots safe and secure? If these sorts of allegations were made in any other country about the UN representatives, if thousands of ballots found in a dumpster while the ballot-counting process was still ongoing had happen in the US, France or Canada, you’d expect an investigation? Why not the double standard? Why not the same respect for an election in Haiti, especially given the totally illegal bi-centennial Coup d'etat that preceded the Feb. 7th elections, especially in light of the fact the UN Security Council which refused to send help to Haiti's elected government BEFORE to coup, sent help to uphold the coup detat regime after President Aristide was flown out of Haiti under military pressure from France, Canada and the US!

The world owes the innocent Haitian people more respect for their sovereignty and the international community which trivialized Haitian democracy and justice, at its whim, shares a grave responsibility for the more than 20,000 dead since the coup and for the current attempt, by Jacques Bernard, CEP executive director and, Reginald Boulos (OAS-financed printer of Haiti's ballots and key coup d'etat player), et al, to rig the 2006 parliamentary elections by summarily excluding the Lavalas and L'espwa candidates from the second rounds.

"When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped...........If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want and all that is left is a compromise." Robert Fritz

Donate to HLLN's work

Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!

Pèralte Speaks!

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The
Crucifiction of Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme,
a historical
perspective

Urge the Caribbean Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue regime: