Leisure, a Lost Public Good?

While the Haitian Constitution does not explicitly recognize the right to leisure, its preamble, a moral and political charter, nonetheless sets as an ideal the guarantee of the Haitian People's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which implicitly prefigures the right to leisure, categorized as a social right. Traditionally, moments of great popular rejoicing, such as the year-end holiday season or carnival festivities, were pompously celebrated in Haiti. They served as a true social bond that contributed to collective identity. Haitian popular culture abounds with implicit or explicit references to these significant events, which constitute a living cultural heritage, reinventing itself through genuine intergenerational transmission. For some time now, these popular celebrations have somewhat lost their splendor. This was evident in the year-end holidays of 2025, followed by the Carnival period in early 2026, which took place in a particular atmosphere in most cities across the country. During this festive interlude, a few vacationers, party-goers, resigned in search of an outlet, flocked to the rare entertainment venues offered by event promoters or stemming from citizen initiatives and socio-cultural or religious associations. The observation is somewhat more alarming in certain regions plagued by gang violence, such as the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, where decapitated towns and neighborhoods, reinforced by gunfire, have emptied of their residents, who themselves are forced to relocate elsewhere or swell the ranks of internally displaced persons, settled in makeshift camps here and there throughout the remains of the Capital. What diagnosis can be made? What does this signify? Why do the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince hide? Have we become boring people? People too busy surviving? Living day by day? Just getting by? Do we simply have the right to leisure in Port-au-Prince? Are we too busy surviving to no longer think about living fully? Surviving the gang war? Surviving clashes between law enforcement and forces of chaos? Surviving yet another displacement? Surviving a “stray” bullet? Surviving the unspeakable? The inexpressible? Surviving hunger? Inflation? Kidnapping? Surviving rapes? Surviving our barriers? Surviving behind barred barriers? Surviving within our barriers? Surviving the terrified gaze of a child forced to flee school abruptly in the face of imminent danger? Surviving madness? Surviving ourselves? The « bwa kale » of innocents? Cannibalism? Inner demons? Demons of yesterday? Surviving without living? Leisure, the Cement of Social Cohesion and Individual Fulfillment While the Haitian Constitution does not explicitly recognize the right to leisure, its preamble, a moral and political charter, nonetheless sets as an ideal the guarantee of the Haitian People's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which implicitly prefigures the right to leisure, categorized as a social right. However, the international instruments to which Haiti is a party include this right as an extension of economic, social, and cultural rights, specifically the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), whose Article 7 recognizes the right to rest and leisure, and Article 15, the right to cultural life, while Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) stipulates that «everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.» By way of definition, leisure refers to «activities practiced during free time, in opposition to work or domestic obligations. By contributing to emancipation, pleasure, and personal development, they promote well-being, human dignity, and social participation.» This includes, non-exhaustively: relaxation, sports, culture, music, dance, cinema, reading, and community gatherings. From the philosophical perspective of Aristotle, an eminent Greek philosopher, leisure is the end of work. «Leisure seems to contain in itself pleasure, happiness, and felicity», he explains in Nicomachean Ethics. This interpretation consecrates the importance of leisure in human life. Furthermore, access to leisure is highly dependent on lifestyle and, more strictly, financial conditions. Hence, there is an inequality of access to leisure spaces between social classes. This dynamic is illustrated by the organization of events in secure locations (hotels and private clubs in Pétion-Ville) where the high cost of participation makes them more accessible to a more affluent minority. Life in Port-au-Prince, a Life of the Bare Minimum Caution is paramount in Port-au-Prince; daily life is reduced to the bare minimum. Going out to work, in search of daily bread, to shop within the limits of our meager means. Going out to school, to the Faculty (at least what remains of it), for a consultation at the Hospital, which has become an increasingly expensive service, while also becoming scarcer as the grip of criminal gangs on Port-au-Prince tightens, shrinking living space to almost nothing. Going out to trade in the informal sector. The ordeal lies in the effort to survive. In this context, collective activities are almost impossible or restricted. This pushes people to opt for more private or personalized leisure activities, such as reading, listening to music while confined at home, often with headphones. But rarely small gatherings. Thus, the phone has become the ultimate refuge, and social networks, a dopamine reservoir for escape. « We scroll and survive as best we can. » If in the 70s, Haitian nightlife served as a reference for the region, today, the streets of Port-au-Prince empty at dusk. Is this why the center of gravity for Haitian entertainment has, by force of circumstances, shifted towards Cap-Haitien and its surroundings, which has become the country's main city hosting international commercial flights and, until now, outside the sphere of criminal groups? Event grace has spread to other «safe» areas like Jacmel, Fort-Liberté, Les Cayes, Jérémie. Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince lives to the rhythm of unsettling news. The ordeal lies in the effort to survive within a capital city with a backdrop of armed violence, widespread insecurity, and precarious socio-economic conditions. A fertile ground for fear, stress, isolation, feelings of powerlessness, social disintegration, and depression. The Psychology of Port-au-Prince Residents, Adapted to the Crisis Psychology has observed human beings in circumstances similar or quasi-similar to the evolving context of Port-au-Prince residents and has reached the following conclusion: When the environment is marked by violence, economic instability, or uncertainty, the human mind focuses on immediate survival, which for many can lead to severe psychological effects, including post-traumatic stress and chronic anxiety. Gustave Le Bon's work on the psychology of war helps to better understand the human mind in such circumstances. Thus, the psychology of Port-au-Prince residents fits into a universal dynamic of societies in crisis facing situations of generalized oppression or within the broader framework of war psychology: living in a deleterious environment, under constant threat, leads to a culture of the present, hypervigilance, and desocialization, but also forms of resilience. These operate in contexts of civil wars, military occupations, authoritarian regimes, or others. Between 2003 and 2007, the same survival patterns were observed in Baghdad, Iraq, in the face of attacks and constant violence generated by the war. The Crisis is Social, Above All The current crisis is a social crisis that combines insecurity, poverty, institutional collapse, massive displacements, and weakens the social fabric, community ties, and places of socialization (families, schools, churches, public spaces). In doing so, it undermines cultural values and compromises the intergenerational transmission of parts of material and immaterial heritage. On the other hand, it integrates other dimensions of security, political, institutional, economic, and humanitarian nature, whose main indicators include rampant insecurity, thousands of victims of armed violence, forced displacements, food insecurity, political instability, institutional failure, the weakening of the rule of law, lack of access to essential services, socio-economic problems including inflation, the worsening of social inequalities, the decapitalization of the middle class, or even widespread pauperization, the resulting humanitarian crisis, and more broadly, the violation of fundamental rights. Recent reports published by the United Nations on Haiti indicate an increasingly critical situation. The figures are alarming: Over 5,915 people killed throughout 2025. Approximately 2,708 injured have been recorded. Tens of thousands of people are forced to flee their neighborhoods due to insecurity and gang warfare, leading to the proliferation of internally displaced persons' camps erected under precarious sanitary conditions. Simultaneously, nearly 6.4 million Haitians need humanitarian assistance while 5.9 million are in a situation of acute food insecurity according to the 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan, published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Markets, supply routes, and access to basic necessities are severely disrupted. The informal economy is weakened. Similarly, living conditions are increasingly precarious: reduced mobility, difficult access to essential services, impoverishment of the population. The impact of this chaotic situation on mental health reinforces the need for political decision-makers to address the issue of access to leisure. Considering Leisure as a Public Good If the absence of collective leisure gradually leads to community disintegration, vital leisure spaces for social cohesion and cultural identity must, in this case, be preserved within the framework of well-defined public policies. Hence the need to consider leisure as a public good. Indeed, leisure promotes mental health, social integration, community life, cultural valorization, and youth creativity. In a crisis context, its public utility is reinforced as a tool for resilience. A leisure policy should include culture, sports, and youth. However, it is noteworthy that Haiti does not have a policy in this area (as in many sectors). The lack of infrastructure (parks, libraries, cultural centers accessible to all), not to mention the lack of support for cultural agents, artists, socio-cultural groups, and artisans by public bodies, testifies to this manifest disinterest on the part of state authorities in the issue of leisure. Most of the effort comes from associations and other private or community initiatives. On the other hand, the question of access to leisure raises a public health issue insofar as psychological studies have established a link between good mental health and the full enjoyment of the right to leisure. Therefore, access to leisure constitutes a priority axis of any serious public mental health policy. Given the anxious Haitian social climate and with a view to addressing the issue of mental health in Haiti, the right to leisure should be considered a public good with strong social utility, recognized by public law and requiring the implementation of genuine public policies in this area. However, in the current context of a multidimensional crisis, far from a structured public service, it is rather left to the initiative of patrons and local associations, or NGOs, when it is not simply erased from the community radar. Undoubtedly, mental health remains the silent emergency. Indeed, the main consequences of poor mental health include anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disorders, stress-related eating disorders, irritability and aggressiveness, cognitive disorders, psychosomatic manifestations, loss of self-esteem and meaning, burnout, or more severe disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), severe depression, and risky behaviors (such as alcoholism and drug use). As a global alarm cry echoed nationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warn of the need to integrate mental health into humanitarian responses, as it is directly linked to social resilience and reconstruction. Furthermore, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes, in the enunciation of its Article 12, the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. These aforementioned harmful effects on mental health are part of a more general public health issue and can be combated, notably through a good public policy promoting access to leisure, associated with other psychological and social support measures and structural reforms. In this sense, internally displaced persons, women victims of sexual violence, and children deprived of schooling are particularly exposed to psychological sequelae and require specific care from competent institutions. Because a traumatized population without psychological support can severely compromise possibilities for economic progress and institutional strengthening. A Need to Live Because public spaces are fraught with incessant threats, Port-au-Prince residents hide in their homes: armed gangs, blocked roads, kidnappings, and food insecurity. The home, despite its limitations, remains the ultimate «safe place» when regrettable accidents/incidents do not occur there. «Bal mawon», neighborhood disputes resolved by a bullet to the head, or even a home abduction. Once again, the year-end holidays and the carnival period took place in a rather deleterious climate in the Capital, even if certain cultural events, particularly in Pétion-Ville, attracted crowds, determined, come what may, to offer themselves a moment of relaxation, a moment of respite, a sigh of happiness. However, when survival is a priority, great popular celebrations become secondary or rare. It is to be feared that patron saint festivals – insofar as the security and socio-economic situation remains unchanged, and the main national roads are still compromised – will take place under the same particular conditions in certain places with a religious patron saint. The National Carnival has not taken place since 2021. It has been canceled repeatedly for political and security reasons. Some «safer» communes, however, pushed for the initiative this year, just like Jacmel, which painstakingly strives to maintain a tradition that has earned it renown, in addition to other tourist attractions. And since 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Haiti has been experiencing a multidimensional crisis that has worsened. Human rights are systematically violated: right to security, education, health, food, free movement, human dignity, right to housing. The State is unable to fulfill its sovereign functions, particularly security and justice. And Port-au-Prince, quietly but surely, has transformed into a city that goes to bed too early, a city that sleeps poorly at night, with one eye open, a nightmarish city, a city that fiercely protects its barriers. A city where, come what may, life expectancy is twenty-four renewable hours (if fate allows), where surviving at all costs no longer (or almost no longer) considers the zest for life. A state of general confinement and shock shapes the human mind of the city dweller who isolates themselves and begins a slow but certain desocialization. It is the story of a boring life reduced to the bare minimum and a dull routine. Persistent political instability paralyzes an already limping institutional machine. Impunity reigns. An international force is expected to strengthen the actions of national security forces aimed at restoring order and security throughout the national territory. In this sinister theater, Haitians wonder when the city will be defended as a natural setting for human flourishing? When will there be real reforms within the state apparatus? When will the right to leisure be guaranteed? And above all, when will the most fundamental right be guaranteed? The right of rights. The right to life. Luis Evens Sergio ALEXIS Jurist and Political Scientist MBA Student alexissergio450@gmail.com For further reading: 1. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted December 16, 1966, entered into force January 3, 1976
2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1946
3. Wurtz, Karine. Le bonheur chez Aristote, Le philosophe heureux, 2013, https://www.philo-du-bonheur.fr/aristote/
4. Vladimir Predvil, Haiti: The UN denounces an unprecedented security and humanitarian crisis, published January 23, 2025, https://www.lenational.org/post_article.php?pol=5948
5. Gérald Arboit & Michel Mathien (edited by), La guerre en Irak. Les médias et les conflits armés, https://www.academia.edu/115965979/G%C3%A9rald_Arboit_Michel_Mathien_dirs_La_guerre_en_Irak_Les_m%C3%A9dias_et_les_conflits_arm%C3%A9s?utm_source=copilot.com
6. United Nations, Annual Results Report 2024 in Haiti, published May 22, 2025, https://haiti.un.org/fr/294854-rapport-annuel-des-r%C3%A9sultats-2024-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9quipe-pays-des-nations-unies-en-ha%C3%AFti
7. UNHCR, Haiti – A multidimensional crisis leading to continuous displacements, October 3, 2024, https://dataviz.unhcr.org/fr/product-gallery/2024/10/haiti-une-crise-multidimensionnelle-entrainant-des-deplacements-continus/
8. Simon Riendeau Brouillard. Report on the situation of psychology in Haiti, January 2025, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rapport-sur-la-situation-de-psychologie-en-haiti-simon-brouillard-ithwe/
9. Zanmi Lasante. Mental health in times of crisis: ensuring access to care, October 10, 2025, https://zanmilasante.org/news/sante-mentale-en-temps-de-crise-garantir-lacces-aux-soins
10. Gustave Le Bon, Psychological Teachings of the European War (1915), https://classiques.uqam.ca/classiques/le_bon_gustave/enseign_psycho_guerre_euro/ens_psycho_guerre.html?utm_source=copilot.com
11. OCHA, Haiti Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 – Executive Summary (December 2025) [FR/HT], https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/haiti/haiti-besoins-humanitaires-et-plan-de-reponse-2026-resume-executif-decembre-2025-frht