Originally published in Haitian Times on August 07, 2024
Haitian feminist and human rights leaders are calling out Haiti’s transitional government for excluding women and their priorities, even as it purports to restore a rights-based democratic government. For example, Haiti’s nine-member Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) has only one woman, and she has no vote as one of the TPC’s two observers. No women were interviewed for the post of interim prime minister.
The exclusion of women from decision-making in Haiti’s politics has become a pattern. This not only violates Haiti’s constitutional requirement for gender equality in the nation’s public affairs but also threatens the effectiveness of Haiti’s transition as a whole. Haiti’s international partners have remained shockingly silent.
Haitian advocates are fighting back with a Policy Framework for an Effective and Equitable Transition that has been endorsed by over 135 organizations from around the world. The Framework sets out the binding laws and best practices necessitating women’s inclusion in Haiti’s transition, emphasizing that to be meaningful, inclusion must be robust, resourced, and reflective of the priorities of Haiti’s women’s movement. It proposes recommendations that will serve as a foundation for advancing the rights of Haitian women and safeguarding Haiti’s transition. It must be urgently adopted if Haiti is to succeed in ending its crisis.