Down­load (PDF, 388.03KB)

For Imme­di­ate Release
May, 17, 2010

Con­tacts:
Blaine Bookey, Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH)
(415) 515‑8956; blaine@ijdh.org

Lisa Davis, MADRE
(212) 627‑0444, lisadavisnyc@gmail.com

Deena Hur­witz, Pro­fes­sor of Law, Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia School of Law
(434) 924‑4778; deena@virginia.edu

U.S. Del­e­ga­tion Finds Inad­e­quate Response, and “Victim-Blaming” Approach to Rapes in Hait­ian Dis­place­ment Camps

Lawyers col­lect rape sur­vivor accounts and plan legal strategy

PORT-AU-PRINCE (May 17, 2010) – In over a week of on-site inter­views and explo­ration, a del­e­ga­tion of U.S. lawyers, health pro­fes­sion­als, and com­mu­nity activists found con­tin­ued alarm­ing rates of rape and other gender-based vio­lence (GBV) in the dis­placed per­sons camps through­out Port-au-Prince since the Hait­ian earth­quake in Jan­u­ary. Expressed sen­ti­ments on the part of some Hait­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials that vic­tims are some­how to blame for the rapes is out­ra­geous to human rights attor­neys and com­mu­nity mem­bers, who find that women face a grave lack of secu­rity nec­es­sary to pre­vent and respond to the sex­ual vio­lence cri­sis. Med­ical ser­vices are over­whelmed and unable to meet women’s health­care needs stem­ming from the assaults.

“It is crit­i­cal that we dis­pel the myth that these rapes are a result of promis­cu­ity,” said Blaine Bookey, an attor­ney with the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH), and coor­di­na­tor of the del­e­ga­tion. “These are vio­lent crimes being per­pe­trated by strangers in the dark of night and they merit the atten­tion of the police and other groups help­ing orga­nize the camps.”

The vast major­ity of the women and girls reported being raped by groups of armed, unknown assailants who often beat them in the course of the attack, and threat­ened them with fur­ther vio­lence if they reported the rape. Per­pe­tra­tors often attack at night, when women are asleep beside their chil­dren; or when they go to the latrines, men wait for them in the dark stalls. “It is totally unac­cept­able for these rapes to con­tinue to go unpun­ished,” said Mario Joseph, Man­ag­ing Attor­ney at the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux (BAI), which hosted the del­e­ga­tion at its office in Port-au-Prince. “We are now build­ing strong legal cases to hold rapists account­able and bring these women the jus­tice they deserve.”

Women who report rapes to the police describe being turned away, not taken seri­ously, or told to notify the police if they see the rapists again. “Pa tap vini” or “They never would have come,” described one woman as to why she did not report her rape. These expe­ri­ences fos­ter the per­cep­tion that report­ing to the police is futile, espe­cially if the sur­vivor can­not iden­tify her assailants. “If we are going to over­come a cul­ture of com­plete impunity for rapists, we must cre­ate envi­ron­ments in which sur­vivors are able to report these crimes and  be taken seri­ously” said Lisa Davis, an attor­ney with MADRE.   “Haiti’s polit­i­cal and eco­nomic crises both before and as a result of the earth­quake still do not relieve the author­i­ties of the respon­si­bil­ity to pro­tect women from sex­ual assault,” said Deena Hur­witz, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor and direc­tor of the Inter­na­tional Human Rights Law Clinic at the Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia School of Law.

Infor­ma­tion regard­ing med­ical and legal ser­vices for sur­vivors of rape is largely unavail­able, and where avail­able, it is gen­er­ally incor­rect and incom­plete. Where ser­vices exist, women face pro­hib­i­tively long waits, lack of pri­vacy, and lim­ited access to female health­care providers. “I accom­pa­nied a 15-year-old rape sur­vivor to the Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal, where we waited for three hours before being led to a dirty cot in a pub­lic room, where a male doc­tor was to con­duct the exam. I ended up con­duct­ing the exam myself in another doctor’s liv­ing quar­ters,” said Betsy Free­man, women’s health spe­cial­ist on the del­e­ga­tion. Med­ical cer­tifi­cates, instru­men­tal in doc­u­ment­ing cases of rape, are not reli­ably issued.

Based on these find­ings, the Port-au-Prince based BAI and the Lawyers’ Earth­quake Response Net­work (LERN) call on the gov­ern­ment of Haiti, UN agen­cies, donor nations, and non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions (NGOs) work­ing in Haiti to imme­di­ately improve ser­vices for rape sur­vivors, and take con­crete steps to reduce rape in the camps. Police patrols must increase to include all camps, and offi­cers must patrol inside the camps, not just around the perime­ter. Patrols should, where pos­si­ble, include female offi­cers. Police sta­tions must have female offi­cers who can help vic­tims file reports, and all offi­cers should have train­ing to sen­si­tively take women’s reports.

About the Organizations

Coor­di­nated by the IJDH–orga­nized Lawyers’ Earth­quake Response Net­work (LERN), the del­e­ga­tion included rep­re­sen­ta­tives from MADRE, the Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia School of Law, TransAfrica Forum and the law firm of Mor­ri­son and Foer­ster. Mem­bers met with grass­roots women’s orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing KOFAVIV and FAVILEK, and larger NGOs includ­ing Kay Fanm and SOFA.

LERN now has over 360 lawyers and law stu­dents respond­ing to var­i­ous post-earthquake needs. IJDH and BAI fight for human rights and jus­tice in Haiti and for fair and just treat­ment of Haitians in the United States.

# # #