The human rights organization reminded that sexual crimes are condemned by Haitian laws and by the international legal framework signed and ratified by the Caribbean country; the most recent case reported by the platform was the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl by members of the Kokorat san ras gang on July 10.

Défenseurs Plus also echoed data provided by the women’s advocacy organization Nègès Mawon, according to which 652 women and girls were victims of sexual violence in four Port-au-Prince neighborhoods between May 2022 and March this year.

Ninety of the victims contracted sexually transmitted diseases and nine were killed, the Collective lamented.

Furthermore, it denounced that most of the hospitals and public institutions that can provide assistance and psychological support to the victims are dysfunctional, leaving the women and girls who suffer from these traumatic experiences to their fate.

They are traumatized and live with the after-effects of violence under a reign of impunity that encourages systematic human rights violations, the platform deplored in a statement.

In this sense, they demanded the current authorities to adopt urgent and necessary measures to stop this phenomenon “which plunges many families into pain and anguish”.

“The shocking testimonies shared by victims underscore the urgent need for urgent action to stop this depraved behavior, and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable and victims are supported,” so says the UN Integrated Office in Haiti and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. said in a joint note.

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