Women's Rights

Rape Accountability and Prevention Project (RAPP)

Overview

IJDH and BAI have joined with grassroots groups in Haiti and international partners to launch the Haiti Rape Accountability and Prevention Project (RAPP) to respond to the epidemic of rapes against poor women and girls in Haiti in the wake of the January 12, 2010 earthquake. RAPP provides individual victims of sexual assault the legal services they need to obtain justice and compensation, while working with allies in Haiti and abroad to transform the social context that underlies the vulnerability of all poor Haitian women to assault. The Project also aims to deter future rape by punishing the perpetrators and forcing a more effective response by law enforcement and the justice system.

RAPP is building on the BAI’s 15 years’ experience helping poor women and other marginalized groups enforce their human rights to implement a comprehensive response to the rapes. The BAI and IJDH will play a coordinating role and lead the legal activities, but RAPP as a whole will be a wide collaboration assembling the respective talents of Haitian grassroots groups, international advocates and health and legal professionals. RAPP includes four closely integrated components: legal advocacy, healthcare, organizing, and public advocacy.

Grassroots Coordinator, Getchine Rose Lima is Goldin Institute’s Global Associate for Haiti. Read more HERE.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights work

Request for pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures to pre­vent the irrepara­ble harm of rape, sex­ual vio­lence, and death of women and girls and women’s human rights defend­ers in the inter­nal dis­place­ment camps

Legal Document:Request for Pre­cau­tion­ary Measures - October 21, 2010
Legal Document: Commission’s Decision Granting Precautionary Measures – December 22, 2010
Report: Read an analysis of the Commission’s Decision by Attorneys for Petitioners - January 2011
Press Release: IACHR Com­mis­sion Sets Unprece­dented Rec­om­men­da­tions for Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment to Address Wave of Sex­ual Vio­lence in Dis­place­ment Camps — December 22, 2010
Press Release: IACHR Expresses Con­cern Over Sit­u­a­tion in Camps for Dis­placed Per­sons in Haiti - November 18, 2010
Press Release: Human Rights Groups File Legal Peti­tion on Sex­ual Vio­lence Against Women and Girls in Camps for Dis­placed in Haiti

Hear­ing on Sex­ual Vio­lence in Haiti, March 25, 2011

Press Release: Inter­na­tional Human Rights Hear­ing on Rape Epi­demic in Haiti
Record­ing of the hear­ing: Con­stant threat of sex­ual vio­lence faced by women and girls in Haiti’s dis­place­ment camps

Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) reports on the hearing before the Inter-American Petition on Human Rights on sexual violence against women and girls in Haiti, quoting BAI Lawyers’ Earthquake Response Network (LERN) fellow Annie Gell and partner Lisa Davis of MADRE: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55044
Testimony Pictures from Hearing
Intro­duc­tion of tes­ti­mo­ni­als by Lisa Davis of MADRE
Tes­ti­mony of Malya Vil­lard Appolon (Kreyol, English)
Tes­ti­mony of Eramithe Delva (Kreyol, English)
Inter­ven­tion by Lisa Davis of MADRE
Inter­ven­tion of Kather­ine Romero of Women’s Link World­Wide (Span­ish, English)