The General Assembly of the Organization of American States adopted a resolution in 2025 requesting the OAS Secretary-General to develop an action plan for OAS support to Haitian authorities on issues including security, governance, electoral organization, and human rights. The resolution reflected the regional organization’s recognition that Haiti’s crisis had implications for the broader Caribbean and Americas region and that the OAS had a specific role to play in supporting Haiti’s transitional period alongside the UN and bilateral partners.
The OAS had historically played a complex and sometimes controversial role in Haitian political affairs, having been involved in validating electoral processes that were later found to have had significant irregularities and having at times provided political cover for governance arrangements that lacked genuine democratic legitimacy. The 2025 resolution was an opportunity for the organization to play a more constructive role by focusing specifically on the technical assistance and political support that Haiti’s transition needed.
The action plan that the OAS Secretary-General was tasked with developing was expected to address specific areas: electoral technical assistance for the eventual elections, support for judicial and security sector reform, human rights monitoring, and political facilitation of the dialogue needed among Haiti’s diverse political actors. The scope reflected a comprehensive understanding of what Haiti needed rather than a narrowly security-focused approach.
Haitian civil society organizations engaged with the OAS process cautiously, aware of the organization’s complicated history in Haiti but recognizing that regional institutional support for the transition was valuable if properly designed. They called for OAS engagement to be genuinely responsive to Haitian civil society priorities and to maintain human rights standards as a non-negotiable framework rather than an optional overlay on political convenience.