{"id":9986,"date":"2012-07-16T12:19:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?p=9986"},"modified":"2012-07-16T12:19:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T19:19:45","slug":"did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html","title":{"rendered":"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins<\/a>, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out<\/a>,\u00a0positive signs of new construction<\/a>, and the sometimes-contentious presidency of\u00a0Michel Martelly<\/a>.\u00a0In June, President Michel Martelly signed an amended version of the Haiti\u2019s constitution<\/a>. This new version of their constitution grants voting rights to Haitians with dual citizenship, something long desired by the large Haitian diaspora which provides Haiti with around 20% of its GDP. It also reforms how elections are run, though some say the changes are \u201cunworkable from the start.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0But does this amended constitution also eliminate constitutional protections to the religion of Vodou<\/a>?<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kpeLdXeIbwA<\/p>\n

A 1935 Haitian law effectively outlawed the practice of Vodou as superstitious, noting that \u00a0\u201cceremonies, rituals, dances and meetings during which it is practiced as an offering to the alleged deities, of sacrifices of livestock or poultry\u201d\u00a0<\/em>could land a Haitian in prison, and fined (here\u2019s an interesting article on the tensions from which that law arose<\/a>). This law was\u00a0explicitly abrogated in Haiti\u2019s 1987 constitution, and in 2003 Vodou was recognized as an official religion in Haiti<\/a>, meaning it enjoyed the same rights and legal protections as the politically dominant Catholic Church. Now, according to Euvonie Auguste<\/a>, Head of the National Confederation of Haitian Vodou<\/a> (KNVA), this newly amended constitution\u00a0explicitly\u00a0removes the 1987 abrogation of the 1935 anti-Vodou law, leaving Vodouisants open to possible legal persecution once more<\/a>\u00a0(also reported by Religion Clause<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cVoodoo would be no longer protected by the Constitution amended.\u00a0The Priestess Euvonie Auguste, Head of the National Confederation of voodoo in Haiti, deplores the abrogation of Article 297 of the Constitution which, accrding to her protected the sector voodoo against all forms of discrimination. Recall that Article 297 abrogated amongst other things the Decree-Law of 5 September 1935 on superstitious beliefs that restricted arbitrarily the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.\u00a0Given this new constitutional situation, the priestess Euvonie Augustus, stated that now, the vodoo practitioners will have to use their own means to protect themselves from any attacks against them.<\/strong>\u201c<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Any immediate government crack-down on Vodou seems unlikely.\u00a0We know that\u00a0Haitian President\u00a0Michel Martelly<\/a>\u00a0wants\u00a0to build a tourism industry around Vodou<\/a>, with Martelly telling the United Nations:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDo you know how many people would like to come to Haiti and try to understand what Voodoo is?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Haiti\u2019s tourism minister,\u00a0St\u00e9phanie Balmir Villedrouin, is\u00a0already utilizing the allure of Vodou to boost ambitious plans for a new tourism industry for the island nation<\/a>. So arresting people for engaging in a faith you\u2019re hoping curious tourists will come and\u00a0investigate\u00a0seems counterproductive. That said, Haiti can be a politically\u00a0volatile\u00a0place, and Vodou has often been an\u00a0convenient\u00a0scapegoat for the nation\u2019s problems<\/a>. This was in full evidence right after the earthquake, when a number of political commentators decided it was Vodou that mired Haiti in poverty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book \u201cThe Central Liberal Truth,\u201d Haiti, like most of the world\u2019s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences.\u00a0There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile.<\/strong>\u00a0There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10. We\u2019re all supposed to politely respect each other\u2019s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>David Brooks, The New York Times<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, there is a long history of Christian missionaries working to eliminate the faith, using\u00a0coercive conversion tactics<\/a>, along with\u00a0serious accusations that\u00a0missionaries have stirred up anti-Vodou violence<\/a>. So it is important that the nation have protections for Vodou, lest it fall victim to the capricious whims of any of the groups that would prefer to see it go extinct.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6kn_NZzRyck<\/p>\n

At this point there are several unanswered questions: does the amended 2011 constitution protect religious freedom for all Haitians? Does the 1935 anti-Vodou law now stand, or is it no longer applicable? Why was article 297 struck down in the new constitution? I have yet to find a copy of the amended constitution on the Internet, which might help answer some of these questions. Right now, some Haitian commentators do indeed see these changes as a repressive move by the current government<\/a>. Once I have more information, I\u2019ll post an update.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive signs of new construction, and the sometimes-contentious presidency of\u00a0Michel Martelly.\u00a0In June, President Michel Martelly signed an amended version of the Haiti\u2019s constitution. This new version of their constitution grants voting rights to Haitians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[946,1488,1861,2593],"class_list":["post-9986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-haiti","tag-michel-sweet-micky-martelly","tag-politics","tag-vodou"],"yoast_head":"\nDid Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Wild Hunt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Pitzl-Waters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Pitzl-Waters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html\",\"name\":\"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/2ce8d6a747a6ae70a0c7c6ba856756ee\"},\"description\":\"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/\",\"name\":\"The Wild Hunt\",\"description\":\"A modern Pagan perspective\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/2ce8d6a747a6ae70a0c7c6ba856756ee\",\"name\":\"Jason Pitzl-Waters\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3ff2ce956bbf7278dd3ee42208861?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3ff2ce956bbf7278dd3ee42208861?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jason Pitzl-Waters\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/author\/jasonpitzlwaters\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?","description":"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?","og_description":"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html","og_site_name":"The Wild Hunt","article_published_time":"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00","author":"Jason Pitzl-Waters","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Pitzl-Waters","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html","name":"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-16T19:19:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/2ce8d6a747a6ae70a0c7c6ba856756ee"},"description":"Two years after the\u00a0disastrous earthquake that left large areas of Haiti in ruins, most stories focus on\u00a0the homeless camps slowly clearing out,\u00a0positive","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/did-haiti-eliminate-constitutional-protections-for-vodou.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Did Haiti Eliminate Constitutional Protections for Vodou?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/","name":"The Wild Hunt","description":"A modern Pagan perspective","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/2ce8d6a747a6ae70a0c7c6ba856756ee","name":"Jason Pitzl-Waters","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3ff2ce956bbf7278dd3ee42208861?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3ff2ce956bbf7278dd3ee42208861?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jason Pitzl-Waters"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/author\/jasonpitzlwaters"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}