Today I am pleased to be visiting this country. We have enjoyed good diplomatic relations with Panama since 1945.

I would like to thank Her Excellency, Mrs. Dora Boyd Perez-Balladares, for her invitation. This is the first time that my country is being represented at the First Ladies Conference.

Haiti's absence at these meetings, which have been held for seven years in this hemisphere, should not be interpreted as a sign of indifference to the problems faced by women. Indeed, we have been very active in other forums and I personally have had the honor of representing my country at the last General Assembly of the CIM (Interamerican Commission of Women), which was held last November, 1996 in Washington.

I also listened with great interest to the report you presented at the Summit on Sustainable Development held in December 1996 in Santa Cruz. I congratulate you all for the leadership that you have demonstrated and for the work you have done in promoting women, and the very close attention you have paid to children facing special difficulties.

I am very interested in the subject of today's conference, "Building the future of the Americas through human rights and a culture of peace."

After years of dictatorship - followed by the recent military coup which slowed down the democratic process - the poorest and the most unfortunate classes are facing very difficult situations. Despite our laws, the inefficiency of the judicial system has created a climate of impunity nourishing a feeling of betrayal and helplessness throughout the population. However, the people continue to struggle for liberty and respect of their civil and political rights in addition to their right to participate in their country's affairs.

It is well known throughout the world that women and children are the most affected groups in society, and in Haiti these populations are particularly exposed despite initiatives taken to improve their situation.

My speech will allow you to understand "The Evolution of Rights and Participation" of children and women in our nation throughout a critical period.

Children

Haitian children are extremely poor and deprived of almost everything. Although they represent half of the population (3.3 million ranging from infants to 18 years of age within a total population of 7.1 million), they are the future of the country. The law, in particularly Article 261 of the 1987 Constitution, "insures protection to all children." The right to education and health care are supposedly guaranteed and children are also supposed to be protected against all sorts of abuses in addition to providing adequate conditions and environment for a well-balanced and harmonious development.

However, despite these efforts and progress toward the social and economic well-being of children, their situation remains very difficult. The rate of infant mortality (124 deaths per 1000 births) attests to that. Although the Haitian Constitution guarantees children the right to education, still only 25% of our children attend primary school.

I would also like to focus on the cases of children in servitude, child prostitution, children in jail, street children and so on. There are thousands of girls and boys in these situations across the towns of our country. The Government has only provided a limited response to these problems up until now, but some of the actions taken are worth mentioning here:

The Ministry for Social Affairs has the responsible to protect minors, street children and those in servitude and orphans;

The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of National Education and the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports have taken initiatives which aim at making improvements in the physical and mental health of children, to increase the quality of their education and to assure their participation in the life of the nation;

Together with the private sector and some public organizations, the Government is now working on the mechanisms which would favor the development of programs for children throughout the country. In the same vein, the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) is now putting together a program known as "Children's and Women's Rights" whose objective is to further the recognition and respect of the rights of these groups.

Women

Throughout the centuries, Haitian woman have always been courageous: A woman struggling for her daily survival, trying to educate her children in extremely difficult conditions - women peasants, rural women, city women - they all have the same responsibilities, they all confront the same injustices and are victims of inequality.

The struggle of Haitian women, just like for women in a number of other countries in the hemisphere, has been bitter and laborious, but nevertheless continuous. As for the other women in the Americas, they had to obtain by force their right to vote, demonstrate, work and to make decisions regarding their own bodies. They had to claim their right to exist, the right as women to be full citizens of their own country.

This never-ending struggle has been marked by particularly dramatic events over recent years: assassinations, rape, incarceration, disappearances, are some of the sufferings Haitian women have undergone recently. Every argument is used to justify leaving them "where they belong" - in the home, raising children.

But they continued to fight, to revolt against the dictatorship and military repression and to claim their rights. The march of November 1986 demonstrated this. They wanted to make it clear that they intended to participate in the building of the emerging democracy. A year later, the 1987 Haitian Constitution recognized them as full citizens with all their rights.

We can therefore affirm today that the judicial status of women in Haiti is complete. Their political rights as well as social and cultural ones are the same as those for men.

In fact,

Haiti is among the eleven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where women count for 25% of the higher educated layer of society;

Haiti is the leading country in Latin America in terms of the percent of women employed by the government with, for example, 29% of its ministries' employees being women for the year 1994 compared with 10% average in the region.

However, as far as equal work is concerned, Haitian men are paid higher than women.

I deplore the fact that today very young girls in my country are still being used as domestics while their brothers go to school, a situation which contributes to maintaining a 62% illiteracy rate among women;

I also deplore the fact that so far there is no continuing education program for those young women who were forced to abandon school;

I deplore that the rate of mortality among women who give birth is 4 out of 1,000;

I deplore that 10% of the peasant women are forced to migrate to the big cities in search of a better life;

I deplore all those indicators which perpetuate the isolation of the Haitian women who represent 53% of the overall population;

Finally, I deplore the fact that the effective political participation of women in their country's business depends solely on their level of education and on their economic status.

The Government is very aware of these problems and is formally seeking ways and means to promote women. The international agreements we recently entered into are an example of the efforts and progress being made:

We agreed to the Beijing resolutions which call for consulting with the civilian community on its essential needs and demands in a process that will give rise to a plan composed of the principle demands of the Haitian women.

And also the ratification of the Belém Do Pará Convention.

Being aware of the necessity to redress the intolerable and unjust situation of women of my country, the policy of the Haitian Government in that domain is articulated along two fundamental lines:

1) Identifying the social, economic, political and cultural inequalities so they can be eliminated;

2) Promoting social equity.

In that perspective, the creation of the Ministry for Women's Affairs and the general declaration, which was signed by all the ministers of the Government engaging them to favor and promote women in their fields of action are eloquent illustrations of our intent.

For the next three years, in order to assure "the full and equal integration of women by the year 2000" the Government will focus its attention on three main priorities:

1) Fighting poverty and promoting the autonomy of women; this should facilitate their social and economic rehabilitation;

2) Designing and setting forth a social and judicial framework aimed at reducing discrimination against women; and

3) A broad awareness campaign aimed at eliminating prejudices and stereotyping.

As we declared at the OAS General Assembly held in Montrouis in 1995, we should: "pay tribute to the dignity of women, as well as to the contribution they have made to society; let there be policies aimed at encouraging their integration and active participation in society's affairs so that they can fully enjoy their rights and realize their potential."

Therefore, I have committed myself to work along with the Government's initiatives, which are seeking to better the lives and existence of 4 million Haitian women because decent life for women and their children is the channel through which we will achieve a peaceful climate and the respect for human rights.

To support that position, I will intervene in two key sectors -- micro-credit and education:

Micro-credit will be used as an instrument to help the Haitian women break the vicious cycle of poverty in which they have been living for years, because of lack of resources;

Education will be used as a means to insure that women fully and equally participate in their country's affairs because without education, as we have already stated, their participation in their nation will remain just a dream.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those organizations, FNUAP, UNICEF, IICA, UNESCO, OMS-OPS, who, through their local offices, have promised to support these activities. This support will culminate in a comprehensive education program.

We must therefore educate the women of the future and make them more open-minded, help them to understand each other and create tolerance necessary to succeed in this global world in which we live. This way we can achieve the goal of living in a peaceful climate as we all aspire.

Thank you very much.