ABSTRACT
The rule of law is critical to ensure security and stability in a post-conflict society, and essential for democracy. It is ‘a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards’.1 It refers to equality, accountability and transparency, and separation of powers. As Carothers points out ‘the relationship between the rule of law and liberal democracy is profound’.2 There has been an imbalance however, in focusing on support for police development by UN missions and other international actors and not the tripod of the rule of law: police, justice and prisons. Rule of law in Haiti suffered from a multitude of problems and in many areas continues to do so to this day, which undermined stability, and facilitated impunity and political manipulation.
