Protecting Survivors of Rising Sexual Abuse in Haiti

The Breakdown

• Criminal groups in Haiti are subjecting girls and women to horrific sexual abuse.?
• Meanwhile, survivors have little access to protection and care services because of insufficient resources and difficulties reaching those that do exist.
• Make justice, aid, and reparations for survivors a priority.

The Situation in Haiti

The rule of law in Haiti is essentially broken, as criminal groups have increased attacks on civilians across the country without fearing any consequences. These groups, which control over 80 percent of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas, have terrorized civilians while police and an under-resourced United Nations mission struggle to restore security.?

Yet while fighting between these groups has decreased this year, attacks on the country’s population have risen, including widespread sexual violence.?

According to a gender-based violence research collective, between January and October this year, nearly 4,000 girls and women reported sexual violence, including gang rape, mostly committed by members of criminal groups. But there are likely more survivors.

What We Found

Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of people in Port-au-Prince in July, including survivors of sexual violence, human rights and humanitarian workers, and government and UN officials.?

Many survivors of sexual violence are reluctant to report the assault or seek health care for fear of retaliation, survivors and humanitarian workers said.

“The bandits don’t care about their age,” one aid worker said. “They rape because they have the power. Sometimes they do it for days or weeks.”?

Violence in Haiti has also included attacks on and the looting of hospitals, pushing Haiti’s health system to the?brink of collapse. Fewer than 30 percent of the capital’s health facilities are reportedly operational, harming the ability of sexual violence survivors to seek crucial healthcare services.

What’s to be Done?

Few aid organizations operate in Haiti, and those that do exist are often unreachable or lack sufficient funding.

Meanwhile, Haiti’s transitional government has prioritized reopening closed health institutions and ensuring better access to justice for sexual assault victims, but it too lacks adequate financial resources to make much progress.

The transitional government should make justice, aid, and reparations for survivors of sexual violence a priority, and the?international community should increase funding to restore rule of law, provide basic security, and rebuild the health and justice systems.

Also in The Week in Rights:

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• #16Days: confronting gender-based violence
• Volkswagen finally moves out of Xinjiang

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