This paper chronicles the advocacy approach behind the broader human rights “Campaign to end the epidemic of rape in Haiti”. This campaign has succeeded in opening political and policymaking spaces previously closed to Haitian grassroots women activists and collectives and generated a landmark legal decision. The advances reflect a model in which the expertise of an international women’s human rights organization is mobilized in the service of a community-based women’s group.

This article contextualizes and documents the issue of increased sexual violence following the earthquake disaster that devasted the country and its people. It identifies the different obstacles to enforcing women’s human rights in Haiti and proposes different strategies for law enforcement and how Haitian officials and the international community can enforce the protection of women and children from sexual violence. By employing a comprehensive rights-based approach, it analyses the role of international lawyers enforcing women’s rights in post-earthquake Haiti. (Summary by Mouka)

This article analyses the use of rape in Haiti historically as a tool of political repression before analysing the issue of rape in a post disaster setting following the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. Bookey describes his work in the Rape Accountability and Prevention (RAP) project, putting forth a detailed account of rape victims’ experiences and the deep physical and psychological effects on women and girls.