Supplement to: THE TOXIC DIVIDE: INTERNATIONAL WASTE DUMPING AND THE FIGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY

By Christine Paul

This blog is a supplement to an original article published by Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 26 Issue 2. You can find the original piece here.

The environmental landscape continues to evolve as research sheds light on the complexities of international toxic waste disposal and its disproportionate impacts on developing nations. The article explored the frameworks established by the Bamako, Basel, and Stockholm Conventions to regulate transboundary hazardous waste movement and highlighted case studies from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Haiti.

This short supplement expands upon the original research addressing newly identified intersections between environmental justice and toxic waste disposal, focusing on Haiti. It examines the implications of the 2010 earthquake on toxic waste management, and how the nation’s ongoing political crisis exacerbates the challenges of waste regulation.

By providing these additional perspectives, this supplement deepens the analysis of systemic inequities by global waste practices and contextualizes the environmental and human health impacts within historically marginalized communities.

Underlying vulnerabilities in Haiti such as poor governance, lack of sound infrastructure and technical capacities, and corruption provide the baseline for inconsistent or nonexistent environmental laws and regulation. The flagrant lack of regulation promotes widespread deforestation, leaves infrastructure vulnerable to frequent natural disasters, and results in unorganized waste disposal.[1]

Illegal hazardous waste imports have been on the back burner as Haitian officials prioritize responses to natural disasters and other climate-related harms.[2] For example, on January 12, 2010, an earthquake struck Haiti near Port-au-Prince in a catastrophic event, affecting approximately 3.5 million people.[3] Reports estimate 220,000 individuals died, 300,000 homes were destroyed, and over 1.5 million were displaced.[4] To date, a significant portion of the population remain displaced after the catastrophic disaster. [5]

Some argue that Haiti’s current poor environmental management results from a lack of sufficiently developed environmental policy and responsible government institutions that fail to enact meaningful change.[6] The majority of environmental regulations were formulated through the twentieth century.[7] Reportedly, more than a hundred laws, orders, and decrees were promulgated up until 1995 dealing with various aspects of the environment.[8] In 1998, the Haitian Collective for the Protection of the Environment and Sustainable Development produced a compilation of two hundred legal texts on the environment.[9]

An example of a modern environmental law regulated by the Ministry of the Environment is the law of September 21, 2017 (the Law), which replaces the Decree of March 3, 1981 (the Decree).[10] The Decree recognized the “first national framework specifically addressing the issue of solid waste management in the country.”[11] This decree also created the Metropolitan Solid Waste Collection Service (MSWCS), the first state institution in charge of waste management.[12] As of 2022, the law emphasizes solid, medical, and high-toxicity waste without providing precise definitions for those terms.[13] Waste management remains problematic even after the law’s promulgation.[14] For example, the MSWCS lacks the manpower and supporting regulations to ensure that waste is appropriately disposed.[15]

History shows that decades of ineffective environmental regulation, coupled with the country’s socio-political climate, has greatly exacerbated Haiti’s tenuous environmental scheme.[16] This is why Haiti must establish a regulatory body that responsibly implements, executes, and enforces environmental laws and regulations; or transform the Ministry of the Environment into a force that effectively addresses the country’s many environmental woes. The Haitian government and relevant stakeholders must prioritize these issues and others affecting the Haitian people and the environment.

Footnotes:

[1] Richener Noël, Governance and environmental degradation in Haiti, in 12 Humanitarian Aid on the Move 1, 8–11 (2023), https://www.urd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/URD_HEM_12_EN.pdf.

[2] UN summit puts global spotlight on land degradation, UNEP (Dec. 2, 2024), https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/un-summit-puts-global-spotlight-land-degradation; See also Global response to drought takes center stage at UN land conference in Riyadh, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (Dec. 3, 2024), https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/global-response-drought-takes-center-stage-un-land-conference-riyadh.

[3] Francois Pierre-Louis, Earthquakes, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Governance in Haiti, 42 J. of Black Stud. 186, 187 (2011).

[4] Id.

[5] Robin Whitlock, Dealing with the Aftermath of a Disaster—Hazardous Materials, Rubble, and Ashes, The Earth and I (Dec. 13, 2024), https://www.theearthandi.org/post/dealing-with-the-aftermath-of-a-disaster-hazardous-materials-rubble-and-ashes; See also Juliette Benet, Behind the numbers: the shadow of 2010’s earthquake still looms large in Haiti, Internal Displacement Monitoring Ctr. (Jan. 13, 2020), https://www.internal-displacement.org/expert-analysis/behind-the-numbers-the-shadow-of-2010s-earthquake-still-looms-large-in-haiti/.

[6] Glenn R. Smucker et al., Environmental Vulnerability in Haiti: Findings and Recommendations 68 (U.S. Agency for Int’l Dev., 2007).

[7] Association Haitienne de Droit de l’Environnement et al., Republic of Haiti, United Nations Universal Periodic Rev. (Oct. 3, 2011), https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/lib-docs/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/HT/JS5-JointSubmission5-eng.pdf?utm.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Mickens Mathieu, Spotlight on the law of September 21, 2017: to better address the challenges of the solid waste management system in Haiti, UNDP Haiti (Mar. 22, 2022), https://www.undp.org/fr/haiti/blog/spotlight-law-september-21-2017-better-address-challenges-solid-waste-management-system-haiti.

[11] Mathieu, supra note 10.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Waste Management, International Trade Administration (2024) https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-waste-management#.

[15] Mickens Mathieu, A Focus on Informal Solid Waste Collectors in Haiti: Key Players but Neglected Actors, UNDP Haiti (Mar. 17, 2022), https://www.undp.org/fr/haiti/blog/focus-informal-solid-waste-collectors-haiti-key-players-neglected-actors.

[16] Marcelin LH, Cela T, Shultz JM. Haiti and the politics of governance and community responses to Hurricane Matthew, Disaster Health. 2016 Nov 22;3(4):151–161.

About the Author:

Christine Paul is a Class of 2023 Presidential Management Fellow. She holds a J.D. from Vermont Law and Graduate School and a B.S. in Biology from St. John’s University. Christine is dedicated to environmental law and justice, and thanks Professor Catherine Fregosi and Christine Ryan for their invaluable support while writing.