Haiti’s Lost Generation
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Haiti’s Lost Generation
A Miami Herald investigation into the alarming rise of Haiti’s gang-related sexual violence
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‘Unimaginable’: The toll on Haiti’s women and girls raped by violent gangs
Rape, pregnancy and a stroke: The scars that sexual violence leaves on Haiti’s victims
As gang rapes surge in Haiti, aid groups strain under demand for services
What happens to a child born of rape? Grandma raises the baby her daughter rejects
Viols: Les femmes et les filles, victimes invisibles de la violence des gangs
Haiti’s Lost Generation
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As heavily armed gangs take over more and more territory in Haiti, including almost all of the capital of Port-au-Prince, one group of victims has been all but ignored: The thousands of women and girls who have suffered sexual assaults as the gangs use rape to terrorize the country’s population.
A Miami Herald investigation into the alarming rise of Haiti’s gang-related sexual violence shows that women and girls are disproportionately affected, yet the crisis receives relatively little attention. The women and girls involved seldom turn to the police as they grapple with shame and social stigma while facing limited access to medical care, little mental health counseling and a severe shortage of emergency shelters.
Assaults are happening with alarming frequency during travel along gang-controlled roads on public transportation, in squalid displacement camps scattered throughout the capital and in neighborhoods run by gangs. In some cases, survivors are subjected to prolonged captivity, repeated rape and forced “relationships.” The perpetrators, armed with assault rifles, often attack in packs, leaving survivors with profound psychological scars.
Assaults are also becoming commonplace inside the soiled makeshift displacement camps where shacks have no doors, and lighting and security are luxuries. Meanwhile, as government authority collapses and poverty worsens nationwide, a culture of rape and sexual exploitation is also growing in communities outside of gangs’ control. Men in positions of power, whether they are community leaders, husbands or warlords, are coercing girls and women into sex in exchange for protection or money.
The crisis has been compounded by the cuts in aid to local and international organizations trying to respond, as the Trump administration cuts funding to United Nations agencies, limits access to contraceptives for women in low-income countries and ignores calls by European governments to make gender-based violence an important human-rights issue.
