Judicial dockets remain clogged, and fair and expeditious trials are the exception rather than the rule. The judiciary is not independent in practice, and in at least 22 cases the executive branch detained persons in defiance of release orders issued by judges. Security forces carried out illegal warrantless searches. Due to the nation's political crisis, citizens were unable to vote for representatives to Parliament. Violence against women, societal discrimination against women, and government neglect and abuse of children remain problems.
Child labor persists.
Vigilante activity, including killings, remained a common alternative to formal judicial processes. The Government's effort to redress the legacy of human rights abuse from the 1991-94 period was slightly more successful than in previous years. The 4-year investigation into the Raboteau massacre was completed in September, an indictment was issued, and by the end of the year, the case was moving towards trial. Otherwise, no significant progress was made in addressing other human rights violations or political killings dating from the Duvalier, de facto, or post-intervention periods. While the estimated flow of cocaine to Haiti increased slightly during 1999, the GOH seized less than a third of the amount of cocaine it did in 1998.