In Haiti, women and girls living in the displacement camps remain as vulnerable to sexual violence as they did immediately following the disaster, if not more so.
One year after an earthquake devastated Haiti, much of the promised relief and reconstruction aid has not reached those most in need. In fact, the nation’s tragedy has served as an opportunity to further enrich corporate interests.
A group of human rights advocates and attorneys fighting for the well-being and safety of Haitian women in the aftermath of January’s earthquake are calling on the global community to act swiftly to end sexual violence in the displacement camps.
Difficult realities of Haitian rape victims
Haitian women, aided by women’s rights organizations, are banding together to protect themselves and all women in post-earthquake Hatii from sexual assault, rape and other forms of gender-based violence.
After January’s earthquake, Haitian women are still fighting for their own lives and those of their children. But they are now experiencing high–and predictable–rates of rape and gender-based violence. Why is so little being done?
At a State Department briefing tonight, Philip J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs reported that the United States is awaiting a decision by a Haitian court on whether 10 Americans being held on kidnapping charges will be returned to the United States.
It is Haiti, it is rape, it is UN peacekeepers and it is nothing new. What do you do when the rescuer is the aggressor?
