This article examines post-earthquake conditions in Haiti, which have left women and girls in a heightened state of vulnerability, as well as the ineffectiveness of the U.N. and government to uphold obligations under international law to include grassroots women’s leadership in the planning and implementation sessions to address sexual violence in displacement camps. It provides a brief overview of pre- and post-earthquake responses to sexual violence in Haiti, and then an overview of sexual violence and the vulnerability of women and girls since the earthquake.

The 2010 earthquake resulted in the breakdown of Haiti's social, economic and health infrastructure. Over one-quarter of a million people remain internally displaced (ID). ID women experience heightened vulnerability to intimate partner violence (IPV) due to increased poverty and reduced community networks. Scant research has examined experiences of IPV among ID women in post-earthquake Haiti.

Ten years ago, on January 12, at 16:53 in the afternoon, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. The country was left in shambles. So was the women’s movement. Three of its most prominent leaders lost their lives in the earthquake, and the implementation of gender policies came to a halt. This CMI Brief explores the challenges facing the women’s cause in Haiti after the earthquake and provides recommendations for how to get it back on track.

Women and girls are more adversely affected than men both during and in the aftermath of rapid-onset natural disasters. The international community has repeatedly called for women's voices to be included in relief and reconstruction efforts in both conflict and natural disaster settings to reduce this vulnerability. Despite this, the case of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti demonstrates that these calls have gone largely unheeded.

Haitians continue to rebuild following the devastating earthquake in 2010, as many also strive to recover and heal from associated horrific events. Immediately following the earthquake, domestic and international agencies reported dramatic increases in violence against women and girls in this small Caribbean nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. In this article we highlight one segment of a situational analysis used as groundwork for developing an intervention to address gender-based violence (GBV).

In January 2010, Haiti experienced a phenomenon no living Haitian had ever known. A devastating earthquake of 7.0 magnitude ravaged the already destitute island nation, killing over 230,000, leaving over one million living in tent cities or open spaces, and affecting millions of Haitians on the island and in the diasporas. This study examines the trauma and resilience of women who survived Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and relocated to Boston, MA.

The international response to Haitiís earthquake, involving billions of dollars and led by the U.S. and U.N., comes with many problems. Notable ones are control of aid dollars, imposition of economic reconstruction plans, and militarism. Moreover, the Haitian state and grassroots have largely been denied formal opportunities to shape, or even engage in, the process. Nevertheless, ordinary Haitian citizens are engaged in their own humanitarian aid.

Bien qu’initialement les interventions extraétatiques se voulaient basées sur une prétention de solidarité internationale, l’aide humanitaire postséisme a eu des conséquences négatives sur la reconstruction de la société, particulièrement pour la cause des droits des femmes. Les acteurs internationaux ont involontairement nui aux mouvements sociaux et le rôle des femmes dans la reconstruction de l’État s’est vu camouflé.

Après le tremblement de terre de 2010, une vague d’acteurs a envahi Haïti, des ONG, des OI mais aussi d’autres États, etc. Les interventions internationales étaient justifiées par une solidarité internationale. Tout du moins, c’est ce que les médias occidentaux ont projeté dans leurs couvertures des évènements. Dans le portrait dressé par ceux-ci, les ressources extraétatiques sont venues comme des sauveurs pour aller chercher sous les décombres la veuve et l’orphelin.

Two years after the 7.0 earthquake that devastated the capital of Haiti and shook the entire country to its core, more than half a million people in Port-au-Prince remain in camps for the internally displaced. Despite the massive humanitarian response to the disaster, living conditions in the temporary settlements are dire; accessing adequate food, water, and sanitation constitutes a daily struggle for camp residents, and reports of rape and other forms of sexual violence—especially against women and girls—continue at alarming rates.