Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape, July 2010

This report, produced by IJDH, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, MADRE, and law clinics at the University of Virginia and University of Minnesota, presents findings from two delegations of U.S. lawyers, community researchers and a women's health specialist who investigated rape and gender-based violence against internally displaced women in Port-au-Prince in May and June 2010. Members interviewed over 50 survivors of rape or attempted rape referred by the grassroots organizations KOFAVIV and FAVILEK, and found that rapes in the camps were dramatically underreported: KOFAVIV tracked 230 rape incidents in just 15 camps in the first two months after the earthquake, and Medecins Sans Frontieres reported 68 rape cases in April at a single Port-au-Prince clinic alone.

The vast majority of women interviewed reported being raped by two or more armed assailants, usually at night. The report finds a demonstrated lack of Haitian government response, with survivors describing reporting rape to police as futile since assailants often could not be identified, and one officer reportedly telling a survivor that catching her rapist was President Rene Preval's problem, not the police's. Camp conditions, including overcrowding, lack of privacy, absent lighting, no private bathing facilities, and minimal police presence at night, left women and girls acutely exposed.

The report concludes that state failure to prosecute perpetrators fosters impunity that normalizes gender-based violence, and calls on the Government of Haiti, the UN and donor states to strengthen protection, coordination and access to justice for survivors, including through the UN humanitarian cluster system.