“Haiti desperately needs legal reform on gender-based violence. Haitian law prohibits domestic violence against minors but does not classify domestic violence against adults as a distinct crime.” – Amanda M. Klasing, women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch
As the Republic of Haiti rebuilds from the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, there is hope that social conditions for the victims of domestic violence are changing for the better.
Before the earthquake
The women of Haiti first gained the right to vote and hold public office in the 1950s. The 60s brought about equal access to employment and wages. Then in 1982, Haiti’s Civil Code was changed, giving women the same rights in marriage afforded to men. While progress was made in some areas of social reform, underneath it all, domestic violence against women continued.
Just two years before the earthquake struck, Amnesty International issued a press release on November 27, 2008, “Haiti: No protection for girls against sexual violence,” which described some of the unchecked violence being committed against women:
“While widespread reports of groups of armed men raping women started under the military regime between 1991 and 1994, it has now become a common practice among gangs of young men, especially in the run up to Carnival each year.”
And then afterwards
Beginning in 2010, Amanda M. Klasing, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, began the long process of interviewing more than 125 women about gender based violence in Haiti and the lack of services for such victims. She discovered in the aftermath of the crippling quake, many attacks have occurred in temporary encampments, where conditions are poor.
On January 24, 2012, Klasing, a contributor to The Hill, a blog about politics in Washington, D.C., published, “A chance for Congress to help Haitian women” where she describes one particular encounter:
“Sixteen-year-old Florence was one of the 128 women and girls I interviewed in Haiti. She was an orphan working for a family in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit. Her employer’s home was destroyed, and she moved with the family into a tent in a displacement camp. There, her employer raped her.”
Now an opportunity for change
According to Klasing, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, an office of the Haitian government, will soon be introducing a measure that would establish new laws, assisting victims of rape and domestic violence as well as improving access to services. She describes the changes proposed by the agency:
“It emphasizes the need for victims of violence to have access to comprehensive, affordable, adequate and appropriate medical care. Most important, the resolution is a show of solidarity with one of the U.S.’s closest neighbors as it boldly takes on a difficult task.”
In Washington, currently there is a House resolution on violence against women in Haiti. If U.S. policymakers are serious about making changes that would advance women’s rights, they should use leverage in the way of greater monetary aid, in order to influence the Haitian government into accepting the fresh resolutions. Everybody knows money makes the world go around and in the wake of some serious business, the U.S. can be loaded with it.
Remember, according to “Piti piti zwazo fe nich Pti Ptit,” an old Haitian proverb, “bit by bit a bird builds her nest.”