Michelle Chen writes about sexual and economic violence in “Haiti’s Women Need More Than a Trickle of Aid Money” in The Nation:

“It’s been four years since Port-au-Prince collapsed, and Haiti’s women are still working through the damage—both physical and mental—left by the catastrophic 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. The cameras and reporters have gone, but the twinned scourges of violence and exploitation continue to haunt Haiti’s ruins…

The assault survivors who have sought justice have confronted a legal system that tends to further degrade women by, for example, requiring medical certificate as proof within 72 hours. According to a 2012 report by New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and other advocacy groups, “representatives of government agencies responsible for addressing sexual exploitation hold stereotypes related to gender and poverty that present an obstacle to implementing practical solutions.” Impoverished women must weigh the risk of taking their case to a biased justice system against the prospect of more victim shaming…”

Read the full article here.

Read the cited report: Struggling to Survive.

Also see CHRGJ’s 2012 report “Yon Je Louvri: Reducing Vulnerability in Haiti’s IDP Camps” (hyperlink to https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/yonjelouvri.pdf) which draws on data gathered from a household survey conducted in four IDP camps just one year after the earthquake, as well as focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews with key informants. This Report provides a snapshot of the relationship between violations of economic and social rights in the camps and vulnerability to sexual violence, highlighting conditions that have yet to change for thousands of Haitians four years after the earthquake.

Read more about the Global Justice Clinic’s work in Haiti.