Heat under the tarps is brutal, we can’t take it any more.
We have fever, we can’t take it any more.
We’re being raped, we can’t take it any more.
We have no water, we can’t take it any more.
We have infections, we can’t take it any more.”
Ten months after the earthquake in Haiti, more than a million people continue to live in a state of crisis and chaos and still the help and the money do not arrive. Refugee International reports an increase in “sexual, domestic and gang violence” in the more than 1300 camps. Internally displaced people [IDP] are being forced to live in horrendous sanitary conditions, many going a full day without food and those who complain are intimidated by camp managers and or face eviction by landowners. When evicted people have to go to other camps and try to form some kind of “home” yet again each time becoming more and more distressed. The estimates are that already some 15,000 people have been evicted and 95,000 more IDP are under constant threat of eviction.
Living in squalid, overcrowded and spontaneous camps for a prolonged period has led to aggravated levels of violence and appalling standards of living. As time goes on, landowners are increasingly threatening camp residents with eviction. Many evictions have already occurred, and with nowhere to go, these repeatedly displaced people are absorbed into existing camps or form new ones with no humanitarian assistance.
The report is highly critical of the UN and those responsible for the coordination of “humanitarian response and aid delivery” but more so of the fact that the person responsible is the same person in charge of MINUSTAH (the UN peacekeeping force.]
Despite these alarming conditions, the UN coordination system in Haiti is not prioritizing activities to protect people’s rights. The current Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) — the person who should be increasing the effectiveness of the humanitarian response and aid delivery — also plays the role of ). Given the competing demands of these various roles, the coordination of humanitarian activities has suffered. There is still no effective protection and assistance delivery system in place.
Neither MINUSTAH nor the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) nor any other organisation responsible for people’s well being and safety, are giving priority to human rights issues particularly Gender Based Violence and Child Protection in the camps. Girls some as young as tens are being raped and medical units have been reporting an increase in failed street abortions and since food has become even more scarce women and girls are being forced into prostitution in exchange for food. To make matters worse those who are working on GBV in the camps and trying to protect women and girls have now also come under threat which heightens the threat of violence for everyone.
Ansel Herz speaking on Flashpoints Radio reported that one camp in CarrFour was being run by Americans and was actually charging residents a “camp tax” for permission to stay there. This report was particularly disturbing as it painted a picture of a group of people from America tyrannising the lives of some 10,000 Haitians with rules and regulations which insisted that they conduct their lives according to the organizers of the camp.
There have been some recent advances in policing of the camps, but so far they only benefit a small fraction of camps’ inhabitants, and they should be extended to community policing beyond the camps. Since July UNPOL has set up an IDP unit which currently has around 200 officers who are now providing a 24-hour security presence in six of the largest camps. They also have three mobile units that are providing random patrols in the most problematic camps. This increased level of UNPOL policing is welcome, but there is still very limited presence by HNP and the UNPOL officers cannot make arrests without them. UNPOL currently has no translators, so they cannot communicate with the camp residents, and it needs more vehicles and other equipment to increase its presence. A positive recent development is that MINUSTAH military, UNPOL and HNP are now receiving training on prevention and response to GBV. Recruiting and training new HNP officers and reconstructing the HNP women’s unit is still vital.
GBV programming lacks resources, particularly for building the capacity of local camp-based women’s groups working on GBV, who, unsupported, managed to develop self-defense trainings, security patrols, and GBV awareness-raising sessions. This work has made some of these women a target for death threats. RI was told that local agencies working on GBV in the camps had received three times the number of reports of sexual violence than pre-quake, but there has not in fact been a methodical tracking by any agency of incidents pre-or-post quake. UNFPA leads the GBV sub-cluster with only one staff member. Increased staffing for the GBV sub-cluster would enable cooperation with Haitian women’s organizations.
Recently residents of camps have begun to protest on the streets against the inhuman treatment they receive in the camps, the high rates of violence against women and girls and the repression under the UN occupying forces. Only last Friday MINUSTAH forces leveled their guns on a group of 200 protestors and together with the Haitian police began to beat the crowd.
The present occupation of MINUSTAH began in 2004 after the US backed coup which removed President Aristide and they have a consistent record of killings, beatings and harassment against the Haitian people. In the post earthquake crisis, its shameful that this kind of behaviour by the UN continues unabated. Whether in the DRC or in Haiti the UN forces are never there to protect women and girls from violence instead they perpetrate the violence themselves.
“We’re calling out for help to make the authorities hear us. We’re all dying.” For nine months, Jetty has had no income and has lived with her children under a plastic tarp in Cité Soleil. “But we’re people, too.”
Read the full report by Refugee International here
Links: Half Hour for Haiti Alerts
Heat under the tarps is brutal, we can’t take it any more.
We have fever, we can’t take it any more.
We’re being raped, we can’t take it any more.
We have no water, we can’t take it any more.
We have infections, we can’t take it any more.”
Ten months after the earthquake in Haiti, more than a million people continue to live in a state of crisis and chaos and still the help and the money do not arrive. Refugee International reports an increase in "sexual, domestic and gang violence" in the more than 1300 camps. Internally displaced people [IDP] are being forced to live in horrendous sanitary conditions, many going a full day without food and those who complain are intimidated by camp managers and or face eviction by landowners. When evicted people have to go to other camps and try to form some kind of "home" yet again each time becoming more and more distressed. The estimates are that already some 15,000 people have been evicted and 95,000 more IDP are under constant threat of eviction.
Living in squalid, overcrowded and spontaneous camps for a prolonged period has led to aggravated levels of violence and appalling standards of living. As time goes on, landowners are increasingly threatening camp residents with eviction. Many evictions have already occurred, and with nowhere to go, these repeatedly displaced people are absorbed into existing camps or form new ones with no humanitarian assistance.
The report is highly critical of the UN and those responsible for the coordination of "humanitarian response and aid delivery" but more so of the fact that the person responsible is the same person in charge of MINUSTAH (the UN peacekeeping force.]
Despite these alarming conditions, the UN coordination system in Haiti is not prioritizing activities to protect people’s rights. The current Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) -- the person who should be increasing the effectiveness of the humanitarian response and aid delivery -- also plays the role of ). Given the competing demands of these various roles, the coordination of humanitarian activities has suffered. There is still no effective protection and assistance delivery system in place.
Neither MINUSTAH nor the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) nor any other organisation responsible for people's well being and safety, are giving priority to human rights issues particularly Gender Based Violence and Child Protection in the camps. Girls some as young as tens are being raped and medical units have been reporting an increase in failed street abortions and since food has become even more scarce women and girls are being forced into prostitution in exchange for food. To make matters worse those who are working on GBV in the camps and trying to protect women and girls have now also come under threat which heightens the threat of violence for everyone.
Ansel Herz speaking on Flashpoints Radio reported that one camp in CarrFour was being run by Americans and was actually charging residents a “camp tax” for permission to stay there. This report was particularly disturbing as it painted a picture of a group of people from America tyrannising the lives of some 10,000 Haitians with rules and regulations which insisted that they conduct their lives according to the organizers of the camp.
There have been some recent advances in policing of the camps, but so far they only benefit a small fraction of camps’ inhabitants, and they should be extended to community policing beyond the camps. Since July UNPOL has set up an IDP unit which currently has around 200 officers who are now providing a 24-hour security presence in six of the largest camps. They also have three mobile units that are providing random patrols in the most problematic camps. This increased level of UNPOL policing is welcome, but there is still very limited presence by HNP and the UNPOL officers cannot make arrests without them. UNPOL currently has no translators, so they cannot communicate with the camp residents, and it needs more vehicles and other equipment to increase its presence. A positive recent development is that MINUSTAH military, UNPOL and HNP are now receiving training on prevention and response to GBV. Recruiting and training new HNP officers and reconstructing the HNP women’s unit is still vital.
GBV programming lacks resources, particularly for building the capacity of local camp-based women’s groups working on GBV, who, unsupported, managed to develop self-defense trainings, security patrols, and GBV awareness-raising sessions. This work has made some of these women a target for death threats. RI was told that local agencies working on GBV in the camps had received three times the number of reports of sexual violence than pre-quake, but there has not in fact been a methodical tracking by any agency of incidents pre-or-post quake. UNFPA leads the GBV sub-cluster with only one staff member. Increased staffing for the GBV sub-cluster would enable cooperation with Haitian women’s organizations.
Recently residents of camps have begun to protest on the streets against the inhuman treatment they receive in the camps, the high rates of violence against women and girls and the repression under the UN occupying forces. Only last Friday MINUSTAH forces leveled their guns on a group of 200 protestors and together with the Haitian police began to beat the crowd.
The present occupation of MINUSTAH began in 2004 after the US backed coup which removed President Aristide and they have a consistent record of killings, beatings and harassment against the Haitian people. In the post earthquake crisis, its shameful that this kind of behaviour by the UN continues unabated. Whether in the DRC or in Haiti the UN forces are never there to protect women and girls from violence instead they perpetrate the violence themselves.
“We’re calling out for help to make the authorities hear us. We’re all dying.” For nine months, Jetty has had no income and has lived with her children under a plastic tarp in Cité Soleil. “But we’re people, too.”
Read the full report by Refugee International here
Links: Half Hour for Haiti Alerts
Tagged as:
Haiti,
Haiti Earthquake,
Inhumanitarian aid,
sexual violence,
violence against women
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