Mario Joseph, a renowned human rights attorney in Haiti, dies after a car accident
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Mario Joseph, a human rights attorney in Haiti known for his involvement in high-profile cases, has died. He was 62.
Joseph was in a car accident over the weekend and died on Monday, according to the Boston-based nonprofit Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, where he worked as managing attorney.
Joseph also co-managed the Bureau of International Attorneys in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, which represented victims of human rights violations.
“Mario never forgot the humble beginnings he came from. Although he won international awards and honorary degrees, he worked tirelessly every day against the injustice that afflicted too many Haitians,” said Brian Concannon, the institute’s executive director.
Joseph represented dozens of political prisoners in Haitian courts and before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, according to the institute.
He led the prosecution of the Raboteau massacre in 2000, a landmark trial in a country where high-profile politicians and officials are rarely charged, let alone prosecuted.
The massacre occurred in April 1994 in the coastal town of Gonaïves following a demonstration in support of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. More than a dozen people were believed to be killed after soldiers and paramilitary forces raided the neighborhood of Raboteau.
Fifty-nine people were accused, including former coup leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cédras, who had overthrown Aristide in September 1991. Cédras and 37 others were tried in absentia, with a jury eventually finding 16 guilty.
Haiti’s Supreme Court later overturned the sentences in a decision that Amnesty International called politically motivated, describing it as “a major setback in the fight against impunity in Haiti.”
Joseph’s law firm also was involved in a claim on behalf of 5,000 cholera victims who blamed the U.N. for introducing the disease that killed nearly 10,000 Haitians.
In addition, he represented women who had children fathered by U.N. peacekeepers and sought child support against the absentee fathers and the U.N.
