OVERVIEW
CASE FILED YEAR
2017
CASE STATUS
Ongoing
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Sexual exploitation and abuse
CLIENT(S)
Women victims of UN peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse in Haiti
PERPETRATOR(S)
UN peacekeepers from MINUSTAH
COUNTRY
Haiti
Brief Summary
BAI has been pursuing child support claims in Haiti on behalf of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse of UN peacekeepers. In December 2017, the BAI filed child support claims with the Courts of First Instance in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel on behalf of 10 Haitian women who were impregnated by UN peacekeepers. The defendant soldiers have since returned to Uruguay, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, leaving the women to care for the children without support. For over three years, IJDH and BAI have worked to move these cases through the local justice system including by advocating to mobilize awareness and UN action necessary for the cases to proceed. In December 2020, a local court ordered a UN peacekeeper of Uruguayan nationality to pay 350,000 gourdes per month in child support. Read the judgment here.
Major Highlights
These formal complaints are among the first instances of a civil suit brought against a United Nations peacekeeper regarding a matter of sexual exploitation and abuse, as described in a January 2020 report by REDRESS and CRIN. See more here.
Press
- Recent judgement: Buzzfeed, The New Humanitarian, World Magazine, Rezo Nòdwès, VICE World News, and Reuters
- SEA / children born of SEA more generally in Haiti: Opinio Juris, Vice News documentary, The Conversation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Times (UK), Ayibopost.
- Advocacy before the UNGA: UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Candidate Dialogue – General Assembly, Informal Meeting, 75th session, May 7, 2021