HAITI: Crimes Against Women In Haiti Staggering, Panel Finds

Historically, violence against women has been used as a political weapon in Haiti. Since last year's devastating earthquake, experts say women and girls are even more vulnerable to gender based attacks. NY1's Shazia Khan filed the following report.
You don't have to speak Creole to understand the terror experienced by Maricia Jean, a victim of rape in Haiti in 1991.

"At first I felt very ashamed to even walk and I did not feel like a human being," said Jean.

Determined to have a voice, Jean founded a support group for female victims of rape and assault in Haiti. She was a featured speaker at a recent Thomson Reuters Foundation panel focused on the ongoing and increasing violence against women and girls since last January's catastrophic earthquake.

"Since the earthquake, the wave of rapes have been multiplicated. The fact that there is no lights in the camps has made that, at night, anything can happen. Anybody can come in any tent and do whatever they want," said Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa.

Panelist Yolette Mengual, with the Haitian Women's Rights Ministry, says the government admits the conditions at the camps are deplorable and is working to create more housing.

"Particularly women and particularly women who don't have husbands and who don't have anybody to support them," said Mengual.

Still, critics say the government isn't doing enough to protect women and girls from gender based attacks. Rape was only considered a crime in 2005, but attorney Jayne Fleming -- who has worked as a human rights activist in Haiti -- says prosecution is rare.

"If you look at the epidemic of rape in Haiti and then you talk about the prosecution rate of two percent, it is a complete climate of impunity," Fleming said. "Women and girls are afraid to report, they are retaliated against when they report, law enforcement is ineffective, the judicial system is ineffective."

As Haiti struggles to rebuild its communities and government shattered by the earthquake, its hardest challenge may be in restoring the dignity of its people.