A/HRC/14/44 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive at the opening seminar of the joint post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) on 18 February 2010: “We share a dream: the dream of seeing Haiti as an emerging country by 2030, a society of simplicity, fairness, justice and solidarity living in harmony with its environment and its culture, enjoying a controlled modernity in which the rule of law, the freedoms of association and expression, and the country’s development are firmly in place, within a modern, strong, dynamic, competitive and open economy embracing the whole of the territory, one in which all of the people’s basic needs are satisfied and managed by a strong unitary State, the guardian of the general interest, a State which has undergone extensive devolution and decentralization.” 53. A few days after the earthquake the Human Rights Council, alerted to the infringements of rights and the threats hanging over the most vulnerable members of the population, was moved to hold a special session, in the belief that, apart from the immediate urgent need for humanitarian assistance, it was important to secure a prominent place for the question of human rights in the reconstruction of Haiti. In its decision S-13/1, adopted at its thirteenth special session held on 27 and 28 January 2010 and entitled “The support of the Human Rights Council to the recovery process in Haiti after the earthquake of 12 January 2010: a human rights approach”, the Council calls upon the international community to “continue to ensure adequate and coordinated support to the Government and the people of Haiti in their efforts to overcome the challenges arising from the earthquake, keeping in mind the importance of integrating a human-rights approach”. 54. The Council expresses its concern about the present human-rights situation in Haiti, in particular the vulnerable situation of children, women, internally displaced persons, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and the injured. It goes on to underline the need to address the additional obstacles arising from the devastation in such areas as food, adequate housing, health care, water and sanitation, education, work and the civil registry. The Council emphasizes in this context the importance of reconstructing national institutions and of providing cooperation, capacity-building and technical assistance to the Government and the people of Haiti, in accordance with the needs and the requests made by the country itself. 55. By adopting this text the Council firmly indicated its wish to ensure that human rights occupy a prominent place on the reconstruction agenda and to deliver a strong and clear message in support of a rights-based approach, especially at the International Donors’ Conference on 31 March in New York. 56. The independent expert wishes to stress in this connection the importance of safeguarding this vision of a rights-based approach from the very outset of the reconstruction process and to put forward some recommendations, in particular concerning the need to keep in mind the objectives of the realization of human rights in the reconstruction programmes. Neither the urgency of the reconstruction nor the pragmatism of the planning should divert the decision-makers from this approach, for it will enable the country to acquire a different self-image for the future. 57. The loss of hundreds of thousands of lives can in no way be attributed solely to fate or the natural elements, for that would mean ignoring the fact that Haiti had been living for too long in a state of extreme poverty which without doubt did much to magnify the consequences of the disaster. That is why those responsible for the reconstruction must make sure not to recreate the very same factors likely to perpetuate the inequalities and the poverty and thus cause violations of human rights. 58. The reconstruction work should conducted by the Haitians themselves with the assistance of the international community, but it should give priority to the needs and aspirations of the people without trying to impose an organizational model from the outside. GE.10-13204 (EXT) 13