Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Seeking to Redress Violations of the Rights of Children in Cité Soleil, Haiti

On February 4, 2021, Haitian children petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to redress human rights violations stemming from waste disposal in their residential district. The petition lays out a factual background of toxic trash disposal from Port-Au-Prince in the residential district of Cité Soleil, which causes short and long term health harms most acutely affecting children. The petition includes a discussion of climate change's exacerbation of the harms to children through environmental displacement and exacerbation of waterborne diseases. Petitioners allege violations of the American Convention's Rights of the Child (Article 19), the Right to Dignity (Article 11), the Right to Live in a Healthy Environment (Articles 4, 26), and the Right to Judicial Protection (Article 25). The Commission is expected to first decide whether to assert jurisdiction.