Author(s)

Dorly Castaneda

María Antonia Cote

Posted on 18 Sep 2026

Women and girls are on the front line of Haiti’s security crisis. Across gang-controlled areas, the threat of rape, sexual exploitation and abuse by armed groups has become an everyday reality, making sexual and gender-based violence one of the most devastating consequences of the conflict.

The erosion of state authority in Haiti has led to unprecedented levels of violence. Between 2024 and 2025, over 11 000 people were killed and more than 4 900 injured in gang conflicts. By May 2026, more than 1.4 million people had been displaced, representing 11% of the country’s population, with children making up over half of the total.

But these figures obscure the alarming levels of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). In the first six months of 2026 over 5 500 incidents of SGBV – about 30 cases a day – were recorded, 87% of which were collective rape. Women and girls are routinely abducted from their homes or from public transport, held for days or weeks, and raped repeatedly. Some gang members have even filmed assaults and circulated the footage to extort ransoms from families or to publicly humiliate the victims. These acts are systematic and intended to subject communities to so-called discipline, punish perceived opponents and reinforce gang authority. They are a central mechanism of the current system of criminal governance.

The analytical framework that positions SGBV as a weapon of war offers a useful perspective in this context. Though Haiti’s situation is officially viewed as a criminal crisis rather than an armed conflict, these groups’ territorial ambitions, governance structures and access to military-grade weapons place them closer to armed groups than neighbourhood gangs.

Because of this, Colombia’s civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s is a useful reference point. The Colombian government’s response after disarmament demonstrated that recognizing SGBV as a means of territorial control can transform how the problem is understood and addressed. Three lessons from Colombia’s experience are particularly relevant for Haiti today.

Recognizing that SGBV is central to criminal governance

During Colombia’s long-running civil war, SGBV was widely understood as one of the many consequences of the conflict. However, over time, documentation by survivors, researchers, civil society organizations and state institutions gradually revealed that armed actors had deliberately and systematically used sexual violence to intimidate communities and impose authority. It was increasingly recognized not merely as a byproduct of the fighting, but as a deliberate instrument of enforcing social order.

The first lesson for Haiti is thus the need for a shared analytical framework. Institutions, donors, the media and civil society must be able to identify recurring patterns, distinguish isolated incidents from systematic practices and document how SGBV functions within broader strategies of criminal governance.

This will necessitate looking across both actors and spaces. Gangs use rape, sexual torture, forced relationships and sexual slavery in ways that extend beyond individual acts of violence. Reports indicate that gang members demand sexual access to girls, including minors, as an explicit exercise of power – a power that determines whether a person is allowed to remain in the area, eat, access water, receive humanitarian aid, and use other services controlled by the gang. Abuses committed by police, self-defence brigades and other armed actors must be documented within the same framework.

The geography of violence is equally important. A woman crossing a series of gang-controlled checkpoints in a single day, whether to sell goods, reach a market or visit a clinic, is forced to navigate overlapping systems of coercion where SGBV is a constant risk. Recognizing these threats is the first step towards making gender-based violence visible and addressing it as a systematic rather than an isolated problem.

Put SGBV at the centre of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and transitional justice

Haiti’s justice system has effectively collapsed, with severe implications for survivors of sexual violence. Stigma, fear of reprisals and a lack of confidence in institutions all discourage the reporting of abuse, while gangs continue to act with impunity. With political transition and elections on the horizon, Haiti has a critical window of opportunity to address these failures. SGBV must be placed at the centre of any future disarmament, demobilization and reintegration efforts, as well as broader transitional justice processes.

Colombia’s experience offers two particularly relevant lessons in this regard. First, patterns of abuse must be documented before a demobilization deal is signed. In Colombia, judicial interventions such as Auto 092 (2008) and subsequent investigations by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace helped to demonstrate the widespread and systematic nature of sexual violence, classifying it as torture and requiring public acknowledgment by the perpetrators before survivors.

Second, justice and support mechanisms should be designed with survivors in mind. In Colombia, for example, survivor networks, memory work, art and storytelling helped reduce isolation, build agency and support healing. Organizations such as Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres, Corporación Sisma Mujer and the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas achieved this by operating from within communities, combining psychosocial support with legal aid, and placing survivor leadership at the centre of their work – making assistance accessible, safe and responsive to the needs of women living with ongoing violence.

Many Haitian women affected by the crisis live in gang-controlled neighbourhoods or displacement sites, where seeking help can expose them to further risk. For assistance to be effective, it must be accessible, safe and attuned to the realities survivors face.

Beyond emergency care: sustained support for survivors

Survivors of sexual abuse need long-term, sustained support, including safe spaces in which to relay their accounts, institutions capable of handling cases with dignity and confidentiality, and meaningful access to justice. Colombian initiatives led by the National Centre for Historical Memory, the Truth Commission and women’s organizations such as Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres have opened paths to justice by documenting sexual violence as a systematic pattern rather than isolated incidents, creating survivor-led testimony processes with integrated psychosocial support, and producing gender-sensitive historical records that have informed both judicial proceedings and reparations frameworks, shifting survivors from passive witnesses to active participants in truth-building.

In Haiti, civil society has stepped in where the state has failed. Feminist and women-led groups, humanitarian actors and local organizations provide emergency care, psychosocial first aid, emergency contraception, shelter, protection and legal support through networks built on the ground.

However, these underfunded and overstretched organizations cannot meet all needs or reach every survivor. In addition, emergency care alone falls short of what survivors require. While civil society can help build the foundations for recovery, the responsibility ultimately rests with the state.

Colombia’s recognition of sexual violence as a weapon of control in the context of armed conflict paved the way for genuine accountability. While its transitional justice mechanisms were far from perfect, they helped document patterns of abuse by various armed groups and in many different contexts. Haiti lacks an equivalent framework but can start gathering evidence now to establish what happened, where, against whom, under whose command and for what intent. Building that record today will lay the foundations for justice, reparations and healing tomorrow.