Overview:
Haitian feminist leaders at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) panel called attention to the rising gender-based violence and the exclusion of women from political leadership in Haiti. Despite having solutions, Haitian women remain locked out of decision-making spaces and denied necessary resources to create change.
The fight for women’s rights in Haiti has reached a critical juncture, as feminist leaders call for urgent action to combat gender-based violence and political exclusion. That was the message echoed during a recent Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) panel focused on women’s rights in Haiti.
On March 14, the Haitian Women’s Collective, Nègès Mawon, and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti hosted a parallel event, “Advancing the Rights of Haitian Women & Girls: Haiti’s Transition & Beyond,” at the CSW session in New York City. The conversation addressed the deepening crisis they face and its connection to the country’s broader governance failures.
The panel discussed the deepening crisis facing women and girls, linking their struggles to the country’s broader governance failures. Panelists, including Nathalie Eleonor Vilgrain, Souzen Joseph, and Lucia D. Pascale Solages, painted a grim picture of Haiti’s ongoing crisis.
Haiti’s transition needs to center Haitian women and their needs if it hopes to succeed
More than 1 million people are internally displaced, and women and children are among the most vulnerable. Yet, there is no national strategy to protect them. The Haitian justice system, described as “corrupt” and deeply patriarchal, has left survivors of gender-based violence with little hope of ever seeing their aggressors held accountable.
“This regression of rights is happening under the watch of the international community,” Vilgrain said, calling for stronger oversight and direct support for Haitian-led solutions. Vilgrain is a Haitian-Canadian feminist activist and co-founder of the Haitian feminist organization MARIJÀN.
“By supporting corrupt leaders [with] no agenda they are complicit in what is going on.”
Political exclusion undermines lasting change
A major point of concern was the lack of female representation in Haiti’s governance. The country’s transitional presidential council, which is supposed to guide Haiti out of its political crisis, is composed entirely of men—with the exception of one woman, who does not have voting power.
“When we think about whether this transition is the real answer to what we expect as women to resolve the situation, this crisis in the country, we know we have long days as civil society oo work, to advocate, to fight every day,” said Solages, general coordinator for Nègès Mawon, a nonprofit feminist advocacy organization founded in 2015.
The makeup of the transitional presidential council violates Haiti’s constitutional requirement that calls for at least 30% female representation in government.
“When you exclude women from decision-making, you undermine any chance of achieving lasting peace,” said panelist Laura Nyirinkindi, chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls. She cited Rwanda’s post-genocide recovery as a model for gender-inclusive governance.
The panel also raised questions about international intervention in Haiti, noting that Haitian feminist organizations do most of the on-the-ground work, from documenting human rights abuses to providing shelter for survivors, yet they remain underfunded and sidelined by international donors who channel money through large NGOs and government agencies.
They called for a shift in how funding is approached with more direct funding to women-led organizations and how governance is managed, with stronger enforcement of Haiti’s 30% gender quota in government, judicial reforms to end impunity in gender-based violence and greater inclusion of women in political negotiations.
“We don’t get the funding because we’re ‘too radical,’ because we speak out,” Solages said. “Meanwhile, international organizations hold million-dollar budgets but don’t provide direct support to Haitian women.”
