“We will continue the strike in the courts and judicatures,” the president of the National Association of Court Clerks, Matin Ainé, told the Le National newspaper, and highlighted the fact that to date, the authorities have done nothing to comply with the strikers’ demands.

The union went on strike early this month, limiting the work of the country’s 18 jurisdictions, causing a serious impact on the population under prolonged preventive detention, which exceeds 80 percent of the inmates.

They demand full application of the agreement of November 3rd, 2017, that stipulates equitable treatment between legal assistants and regular magistrates, as well as the end of what they call salary discrimination. They are also calling for the appointment of chief court clerks in the justices of the peace courts, a gradual increase in their fees, and the adoption of statutes for the union.

At the beginning of this week, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement indicating that the government commissioners of the courts and tribunals are obliged to systematically verify the accounts of the secretariats of the entities, where they exercise their functions, as well as those of the courts of peace, dependent on the country’s 18 prosecutor’s offices.

Under penalty of sanction, they must send periodic reports to the Ministry of Justice, in accordance with the provisions of the decree of August 22nd, 1995, relative to the organization of the judiciary system.

According to the statement, the measures are intended to better manage, remunerate, administer and control the activities of the prosecutor’s offices and secretariats of the Haitian judicial system.

For Ainé, the correspondence issued by the judicial authorities shows that the Ministry does not have the will to satisfy the demands of the strikers, which encourages them to maintain the movement.

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