Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 02/2011

Security After the Quake? Addressing Violence and Rape in Haiti

Brooke Stedman

January 2011

United States Institute of Peace

Abstract

Nine months after Haiti’s destructive earthquake, criminal violence generally and gender-based violence in particular in Port-au-Prince’s IDP camps have marred the country’s reconstruction efforts. This violence occurs within an overall climate of political instability, which is complicated by 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs); inadequate resources to remove extensive and pervasive rubble; threatening weather patterns and the risk of endemic disease; and the lack of adequate law enforcement. The most prevalent types of gender-based violence in post-quake Haiti are rape and sexual exploitation.