Time line and Comments on Le Nouvelliste

          A quick time line: revisions were made on July 6, 2005, were officially published in Le Moniteur on August 11, 2005, and the entire penal code was not thoroughly explained by the popular press until Adeline Magloire Chancy, the former Haitian Minister for Women's Affairs, wrote an article to Le Nouvelliste on July 20, 2007. I am curious as to why the two year gap exists and what made Le Nouvelliste eventually publish the revisions. Did Mme Chancy take the personal initiative, or did Le Nouvelliste ask her to write an article? I wrote emails to both the Le Nouvelliste and Mme Chancy and have received no reply. Since I have no choice but to speculate, I am guessing that Mme Chancy submitted the penal code and her commentary without any prompting by Le Nouvelliste. I imagine that she was disappointed by the fact that the revisions had been mentioned in the paper, but had never clearly been explained.

                                                          Adeline Magloire Chancy and her son Bernard
           Adeline Magloire Chancy touched on the three main changes that the revisions made: "The decree of July 6, 2005 (1) identifies rape as a crime against the person and substantially increases penalties for sex offenders. (2) It makes no excuses for murder of woman by a jealous husband, murder and injury being excused in case of reaction to aggression. (3) In addition, it decriminalized adultery thereby eliminating the discriminatory provisions in the matter." She also expressed her frustration with the inefficiencies of the Haitian legal system. "A major change was made to the Civil Code in 1982, but it took until 2005 to see changes to the Penal Code." Nevertheless, she is hopeful of future progress, no matter how long it takes. She wrote in her conclusion, "Changes made in this decree are certainly only a first step. They nevertheless constitute an essential step on the long road that will lead to a profound reform of the Penal Code. The work must be continued."

Chancy, Adeline Magloire. " Les agressions sexuelles condamnées par les lois haïtiennes." Le Nouvelliste. N.p., 20 Jul 2007. Web. 17 Nov 2010.           
             <http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=&ArticleID=45931>.