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HAITI - LEGAL PRO BONO EXPERTS TO
ASSIST WOMEN ON RAPE, VIOLENCE
Displaced Haitians Set Up
Camp on Port-au-Prince golf grounds, where an estimated 50,000 Haitians
displaced by the earthquake have pitched makeshift tents for shelter. Image: UN
Multimedia / Sophia Paris
Images of
Releasing a strategic plan for family housing for
an estimated 1.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who occupy one
thousand camps in the region, including twenty-two named separate displacement
camps inside
“We need to change all this. It is our will and
our mission to change all this, to make sure the rule of law reigns in Haiti,
that justice is for everybody, that the police do their job,” said Haiti’s new
President-elect Michel Martelly, following a recent May 6, 2011 TrustLaw
project anti-rape forum on sexual violence in Port-au-Prince.
Providing a pro-bono global network of 160
corporate counsels and law firms, individual attorneys and legal teams are now
making themselves available to assist women in diverse global regions who have
little to no access to any legal assistance. The TrustLaw Connect initiative,
sponsored by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is assisting to bring expert
information together on current conditions covering sexual violence and
violence against women in
Bringing together attorneys, Members of the
Haitian Parliament, medical doctors, health-workers, police officers and
women’s organizations, the forum on sexual violence against women discussed
many critical needs and critical solutions. “The problem is very serious and I
don’t underestimate the problem of sexual violence,” continued President-elect
Martelly.
“More female police officers should be appointed
to help change attitudes in precincts and provide better support for rape
survivors,” said the consensus among the participants of the recent TrustLaw
forum.
The problems are more than numerous. They are
often overwhelming. Swift medical treatment following rape has been almost
non-existent inside the camps with victims of rape falling into every age
group. Girl victims are also often common targets. A recent University of
Michigan (U.S.) sponsored study in
Proper procedure in gathering evidence on rape
cases, along with greater sensitivity to privacy and attention to medical
needs, are part of a solutions-based focus. For members of the HNP – Haitian
National Police in
“Medical needs for dignity and privacy with exams
and in gathering forensic evidence with the crime is also an important part of
proper procedure when a rape has been reported,” says a 2004 U.S. Department of
Justice – Office on Violence Against Women report that is now used in many U.S.
police training manuals. “It is critical that all examiners, regardless of
their discipline, are committed to providing compassionate and quality care for
patients disclosing sexual assault, collecting evidence competently, and
testifying in court as needed,” continues the report.
As stronger knowledgeable police presence is
needed in the camps, a comprehensive understanding of the violent nature of
attacks ,that can include severe bodily damage, is also needed.
“I went to Cafeteria Police Station that same
night to report the rape and file a complaint,” said 34-year-old rape victim,
Josette, in a 2010 Amnesty International on-the-ground interview. “The police
officer on duty asked me for money to buy fuel for the police car but he did
not write anything down on paper!” she said. Josette, an earthquake widow and
mother of four, has not been able to regain her business as a street vendor
since the earthquake and its after-shocks first hit
Only 385 arrests out of 622 rape crime reports
were made in 2010, shared Port-au-Prince Chief of Police, Mario Andresol,
during the recent forum on sexual violence. Of those arrested in 2010 only a
small portion, 45 rape criminals to date, have been convicted of their crime.
It is hoped that specifically directed legal
advocacy can help. “Through a comparative legal study launched via our international
network of pro-bono lawyers, we hope the experience and best practices of other
countries will help
A woman carries a container
of water through a makeshift tent city of bedsheets. Image: UN Multimedia /
Marco Dormino
To battle the problems of violence against women,
one camp in
“There was people, escaped convicts, who were
giving us trouble after I came back from a conference in Geneva who pulled guns
on us to make us give them money and they also carried out many cases of rape,”
said Malia Villard Appolon, coordinator of KOFAVIV – the Commission of Women
Victims for Victims, an organization established by and for sexual assault
survivors.
Desperation, deplorable living conditions,
sickness and cholera, lack of food security, stress-filled worry about survival
with ongoing frustrations and anger contribute much to the increased violence
inside the camps. Vast tent cities without adequate community areas where
people can congregate adds to feelings of isolation and hopelessness. Roaming
gangs of criminals who have yet to be apprehended by the
Fourteen percent of all households surveyed in
four separate camps for IDPs in
“There really is no protection today. What we do
only, we can say, so many women we saw being victims, there was only the bureau
of international lawyers who took the initiative to put in place a system of
whistles, which they gave to KOFAVIV. And the KOFAVIV gave these whistles to
the women in the camp in Champ de Mars, and not only in the Champ de Mars but
all the other camps where our community agents are,” said KOFAVIV coordinator,
Malia Villard Appolon.
Lack of electric lights in the tent cities is also
an accelerate to the violence, causing women and girls to become vulnerable
under ‘black-out darkness’ conditions at night. Lack of privacy, along with the
relative ease for an attacker to enter a tent where a girl or woman is sleeping
creates constant fear among women and girls, where identifying an assailant at night
is a common challenge.
In spite of many uphill climbs and obstacles,
local community based solutions to address the violence are beginning now to
take-root in
In addition to helping women seek legal
justice and greater safety, MADRE is also working with KOFAVIV to help
distribute pots and pans for cooking, along with clean water, soap and sanitary
napkins inside the camps.
“The camps are dangerous places for women and
girls: they are terribly overcrowded, without safe housing, lighting or
police,” says Lisa Davis, professor of law at the International Human Rights
Center CUNY Law School (U.S.) and Human Rights Advocacy Director for MADRE.
“Worse, the social networks that normally provide protection have been
destroyed. Women are raped in their tents, on the way to the bathroom and even
in the bathroom because there’s no way to lock a door,“ continued
KOFAVIV has also organized training for women to
help them learn some techniques to protect them from the attackers. Handing out
cellphones, whistles and flashlights they hope to empower women to respond
quickly and pro-actively to crimes.
“The overwhelming majority of rapes in Haiti
post-earthquake have gone unpunished and the Haitian government and
international community have not effectively deployed their resources to
provide adequate protection,” outlines a legal petition letter signed by ten
advocacy organizations now working on the ground in Haiti, including MADRE,
KOFAVIV, Center for Constitutional Rights, Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti and CUNY Law School, among others.
The letter, as a formal petition, was presented to
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington D.C. on
March 25, 2011 and is also scheduled to be delivered to the United Nations
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the Universal
Periodic Review session at the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva, October 3-14, 2011.
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