Conference in NYC: Economic Prosperity, Human Rights, and the Role of Free and Fair Elections – Case Studies Haiti and Niger

Friday, February 19 at 6:30 PM at the NYC Seminar and Conference Center, 71 West 23rd Street (6th Ave & 23rd Street)

Economic Prosperity, Human Rights, and the Role of Free and Fair Elections – Case Studies Haiti and Niger

A country’s economic development depends on its institutions: its system of government, property rights, land tenure, civil service, and justice. The Inter-Parliamentary Union notes that “In any State the authority of the government can only derive from the will of the people as expressed in genuine, free and fair elections held at regular intervals on the basis of universal, equal and secret suffrage”. What are causes, consequences, and lessons of a breakdown in the electoral system?

Elections are scheduled in Haiti and Niger in the very near future but the campaigns are far from free and fair. In this seminar Dr. Gladys Melo-Pinzon reviews the situation in Niger, and Kim Ives considers the case of Haiti.

Dr. Gladys Melo-Pinzon is the Senegal / Niger Country Specialist of Amnesty USA (AIUSA), the Amnesty International’s Section in the US and part of the global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights.

Kim Ives is a journalist, broadcaster, documentary filmmaker, and an editor with Haiti Liberte.

Organized by the Henry George School of Social Science