By Came Stefada Poulard, Vant Bèf Info, July 24, 2026
The conditions of children who are deprived of their liberty in Haiti is causing serious concern at the United Nations. During a Security Council meeting devoted to the Haitian crisis, Vanessa Frazier, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, revealed that some minors had told her they had spent up to eight years in detention without ever appearing before a judge.
The UN official is relying on observations made during her official visit to Haiti in May 2026. She notably visited the Centre for the Re-education of Minors in Conflict with the Law (CERMICOL), located in Port-au-Prince.
According to her, some children have been held there for several years without formal charges, without trial, and sometimes even without having been heard by a judicial authority.
Vanessa Frazier described the situation as unacceptable. She called on Haitian authorities to quickly review all cases of children deprived of their liberty and to release them when their continued detention violates international standards for juvenile justice.
CERMICOL, a center for minors that has become an overcrowded prison space
CERMICOL was created to house approximately one hundred children in conflict with the law. However, during the UN representative's visit, the facility housed nearly 600 detainees, of whom fewer than one hundred were minors.
The majority of occupants were therefore adults transferred to a structure initially intended for the protection, rehabilitation and reintegration of children.
This situation is primarily linked to armed attacks against several prisons in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Following mass escapes and the closure of some penitentiary facilities, adult inmates were transferred to CERMICOL, profoundly altering the center's original purpose.
In March 2026, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) had recorded 719 detainees in this establishment: 475 men, 142 women, 87 minor boys and 15 minor girls.
Of these, only 23 people had been convicted. The others were in pre-trial detention.
The figures from the RNDDH and those provided by Vanessa Frazier do not entirely match, as they come from different periods. However, they reveal the same reality: an overcrowded facility, diverted from its original mission and unable to offer minors an environment suitable for their protection and reintegration.
The massive influx of adults has also reduced the spaces reserved for children. According to the RNDDH, former classrooms have been converted into cells, while some recreation areas have lost their original purpose.
Minors are now confined to limited areas in order to maintain minimal separation from adult detainees.
A long-standing judicial crisis exacerbated by insecurity
The prolonged detention of children in Haiti is not a recent phenomenon. According to UNICEF, nearly 80% of minors held in Haitian prisons have never been tried or convicted.
The organization also considers the reduction of prolonged pre-trial detention as a priority in its program dedicated to juvenile justice.
In 2023, William O'Neill, the United Nations independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti, had already noted that 99% of minors detained at CERMICOL had not been convicted.
Some had spent several years in detention for relatively minor offenses, without ever appearing before a judge.
The security crisis has since exacerbated the weaknesses of an already fragile judicial system. Several courts are struggling to function, court files have been destroyed or lost, while prisoner transfers are becoming increasingly complex.
However, Vanessa Frazier points out that the absence of a judicial file cannot justify the indefinite detention of a child in prison.
Deprivation of liberty must remain an exceptional measure, applied as a last resort and limited to the shortest possible period.
Children associated with gangs are considered victims
The UN representative also stressed that children associated with armed groups must be considered first and foremost as victims of recruitment and exploitation.
In 2025, the United Nations recorded 2,088 grave violations committed against 1,661 children in Haiti, including 892 cases of recruitment or use by armed groups.
In addition, more than 570 children intercepted during security operations have been entrusted to civilian protection agencies under a protocol concluded between the Haitian authorities and the United Nations.
However, its application remains uneven and requires better coordination between the Haitian National Police, the justice system, the Institute for Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) and international partners.
The revelations made before the Security Council therefore go beyond the issue of prison conditions. They illustrate the profound failings of a judicial system tasked with protecting minors.
In a country where children are already exposed to armed violence, abductions, forced displacement and deprivation of schooling, their continued detention for several years without a judicial decision constitutes a further violation of their fundamental rights.
The solution cannot be limited to relieving the backlog at CERMICOL. It must involve restoring a genuine juvenile justice system, expediting the processing of pending cases, and utilizing alternatives to detention.
Posted July 28, 2026