(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Port-au-Prince: The United Nations high commissioner for human rights will make an official visit this week to Haiti, where a political crisis and gang violence have led to disintegrating security, his office announced on Monday.
Volker Turk plans to meet in the island nation's capital Port-au-Prince with government and judicial officials, as well as with civil society representatives and victims of human rights abuses, his Geneva-based office said.
During the trip, planned for Wednesday to Friday, the Austrian lawyer will also visit the country's north, and to Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic.
The poorest nation in the Americas, Haiti has been gripped by a worsening political and economic crisis since the July 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise.
National elections have not been held since 2016.
The Haitian police, lacking equipment and personnel, have been overwhelmed by the armed gangs, which often act with impunity.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has requested the UN Security Council to approve a special international force to be sent to his country to help stabilize the security situation, a move also called for by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The United Nations warned last month that the country's gang-related violence had reached levels unseen in decades.
In 2022, the UN recorded 1,359 kidnappings and more than 2,000 murders in the country -- a third more than the previous year.
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