Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Haiti

The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection

Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.

Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.

Statute citation

Governing act Civil-law tradition (French). The 1987 Constitution makes assistance to a person in danger a civic duty (art. 52-1), breach of which is "punishable by law" (art. 52-2). The new 2020 Penal Code (decree of 1 March 2020), modelled on French law, criminalizes failure to assist a person in danger, but its entry into force has been repeatedly postponed (2022, 2024, 2025) and is not yet effective. The former Penal Code (Napoleonic-inspired) contained no clear failure-to-assist provision.
Scope of protection Unlike the common-law Caribbean jurisdictions, Haiti recognizes a duty to rescue grounded in its Constitution and civil-law tradition. The precise criminal reach remains uncertain while the 2020 Penal Code is not in force; the constitutional civic duty is in principle applicable. No specific AED-protection statute.
Duty to rescue Yes
Penalty for failure to assist Constitutional civic duty whose breach is "punishable by law" (1987 Const., art. 52-2). The 2020 Penal Code, not yet in force, provides a penalty for failure to assist a person in danger on the French model (imprisonment and fine); the exact thresholds will apply only once the code takes effect.
AED liability protection No
Legal duty to rescue applies

Your protection under the law

Haiti stands apart from its Caribbean neighbours through its civil-law tradition, inherited from French law. Its Constitution makes assistance to a person in danger a civic duty, and a new Penal Code, modelled on French law, is set to criminalize failure to assist a person in danger — though its entry into force, postponed several times, is not yet effective. A rescuer who acts in good faith and reasonably therefore operates within a framework where helping is not merely tolerated, but expected of every citizen.

Duty to rescue

Unlike the region's common-law jurisdictions, Haiti recognizes a duty to rescue, grounded in its Constitution and civil-law tradition: helping there is not merely a choice, it is a civic responsibility. The exact criminal reach remains uncertain while the 2020 Penal Code is not in force, but the moral and civic duty is already very real. In that spirit, knowing how to intervene is not one more option: it is answering an expectation that society places on each person.

Why training matters

When a heart stops, the chance of survival falls by roughly 10% with every minute without CPR: the bystander on the scene is the first link in the chain of survival, the one on whom the victim's fate depends even before help arrives. In Haiti, where emergency infrastructure is often stretched to its limits and delays are unpredictable, that first civic act can make all the difference. Since the country expects everyone to help, one must have the means to do so: competence turns duty into a real capacity to act. To get trained is to honour that responsibility and to stand ready to save a life when it hangs by a thread.