Haiti: Human Rights Defender in danger
Milostene Castin is an activist who coordinates the organization Action to Reforest and Defend the Environment (Action pour la Reforestation et la Défense de l'Environnement, AREDE) in Trou-du-Nord, a town in north-east Haiti. Since 2013, the organization has been involved in campaigning against land seizures, intimidation and forced displacement of subsistence farmers by armed groups suspected to be connected with business interests and the government. For this he has suffered attempts by armed gangs to beat or kill him on numerous occasions, including a stabbing at the hands of armed men during a peaceful protest in 2019, a year in which violent repression of protests against corruption and impunity took place across the country.
In 2020, as more subsistence farmers faced expropriations, threats, and violence, Mr. Castin supported their demands with documentation and advocacy, and organized peaceful protests. On 10 October, after one such protest, six men stood outside Mr. Castin’s home for several hours and began shooting around the house and smashed a window while he and his family were inside. Later in October, on three separate occasions a man went to the school of one of Mr. Castin’s children and asked the school staff for his child by name in an apparent kidnapping or intimidation attempt. The child had to be pulled out of school for their safety.
During the last two months of 2020, armed men went to Mr. Castin’s house regularly at night and shot their weapons nearby. This also happened on 31 December, when the men, in addition to firing gunshots in front of the house, also threw rocks and bottles smashing all the windows and injuring another of Mr. Castin’s children. He called the police, but no one came to the house to protect the family and arrest the attackers.
Since then, Mr. Castin and his family had to leave their home and their children are unable to attend school for their safety. After leaving, armed men continued to come to his house for some time looking for him.
On 12 May of 2021, Mr. Castin was told by an affiliate of the ruling party that government officials “want him dead” because of his defence of farmers in a community facing expropriation. Based on information he has received from trusted contacts, Mr. Castin believes these attacks are motivated by his activism in favour of dispossessed subsistence farmers and that the attackers are linked to government and business actors.