Haiti’s instability fuels rise in sexual violence against women, UN Women reports
NEW YORK / HAITI – A recent report by UN Women shows the alarming living conditions and lack of security faced by 300,000 displaced women and girls in Haiti, exacerbated by ongoing political instability, escalating gang violence, and hurricane season further threatening the Caribbean Island.
With women and girls accounting for 54 percent of the 580,000 internally displaced people in Haiti, the new UN Women Rapid Gender Assessment shows how makeshift camps lack basic human necessities and put women and girls particularly at risk of sexual and gender-based violence. The survey, conducted in the six most populated and diverse Internally Displaced Persons sites of Port au Prince, shows most camps have no lighting or locks in essential areas like bedrooms and toilets, while those living in the camps are exposed to daily threats from armed gangs. The constant danger of stray bullets and other security risks underscore the urgent need for improved protection in the camps.
Aggression against women and girls, and more specifically rape, is also being used in most camps as a deliberate tactic to control women’s access to the scarce humanitarian assistance available. With only 2 percent of the women surveyed reporting having a leadership role in the displacement sites’ management, it is urgent to guarantee the active participation of women and girls in decision-making within camps and to put in place immediate protection measures for women and girls at daily risk.
UN Women executive director, Sima Bahous, said:
“Our report tells us that the level of insecurity and brutality, including sexual violence, that women are facing at the hands of gangs in Haiti is unprecedented. It must stop now. We urge the newly appointed government to take measures to prevent and respond to the violence women and girls are subjected to, and to increase women’s participation in the camps’ management so that their security concerns are listened to and acted upon. Humanitarian aid must be safely distributed in line with the differentiated needs of women and girls.”
The survey also found that over 88 percent of women interviewed have no source of income in the camps. As a result, over 10 percent said they had resorted to or considered the possibility of sex work/prostitution to meet their needs at least once, and a further 20 per cent knew at least one person who had done so. Some 16 percent of women respondents said they felt intimidated, harassed, or traumatized by violent armed gangs, and almost 70 percent said they were mentally affected by the upsurge in violence. Only 10 percent of women surveyed reported having access to health services in displacement camps.
UN Women is supporting women’s organizations to reach displaced persons within host communities and displacement camps, including through projects supported by the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, the UN Peacebuilding Fund, and Germany. UN Women has also trained police officers to improve prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and provide services to women survivors and continues to support female entrepreneurs who are affected by road blockages and ongoing violence, through the women economic empowerment project funded by Norway, as they seek to protect their economic activities and their safety.
UN Women calls on all stakeholders involved in the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to guarantee the immediate protection to women and girls, and to give Haitian women’s organizations a leading role in the management of these overcrowded displacement camps where the lives of thousands of women and girls are at risk every day.
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