Displaced women and girls in Haiti facing alarming levels of SGBV – UN report

According to a UN Women report published in July 2024, rape has been used as a deliberate tactic to control women’s access to the scarce humanitarian assistance available.

The report found that the displacement camps in Haiti lack security features for children, girls and women. 

“There is no lighting in the bedrooms, toilets (which also have no locks from the inside), or other meeting places frequented at night at night, which are used by women, girls, boys, and men without adequate privacy,” the report details. 

Nearly 88.1 per cent of Haiti women and 82.8 per cent of men who participated in the study have no source of income in the camps and expressed a desire to leave the camps and return to quiet homes. 

With resources being limited in the camps, displaced persons face difficulties in accessing adequate and nutritious food. 

“Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of malnutrition,” the report from UN Women’s Rapid Gender Assessment (RGA) further states. 

UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous termed the challenges faced by women and girls as unprecedented, calling for action from the new government. 

“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,” said Bahous. 

Due to violent gangs that have taken control of institutions and paralysed Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. 

580,000 people are displaced in Haiti as of June 2024, almost 98 per cent of whom have become Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Kenya-led mission

In October 2023, the United Nations Security Council authorized a Kenya-led mission to fight the gangs and restore peace in the Caribbean nation. 

The 15-member council adopted a resolution drafted by the United States and Ecuador, which authorizes a Multinational Security Support mission to take all necessary measures to restore peace. 

Kenya leads the security mission while nations such as The Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda expressed will to help.

In the mission approved by Kenya’s parliament on November 16, 2023, 1000 Kenyan troops would be deployed in batches. 

On June 25, 2024, the first batch of 400 Kenya police officers arrived in Port-au-Prince, with Prime Minister Garry Conille assuring Haitians that the state will regain power and restore peace in the country. 

200 other officers left for Haiti on July 15, 2024. "More will be departing soon until we have all the 1,000," a senior police officer confirmed to AFP.