Preface

Marlys Weber, a member of St. Joans for 37 years, has a passion for Justice and Peace actions. She is a member of WAMM and Veterans for Peace and has been arrested numerous times for non-violent civil disobedience. In 2003, she helped organize four anti-war buses from St. Joans to Washington DC. Marlys has been on delegations to El Salvador, Guatemala, South Africa and Haiti. She rides with Team Oz, is a dedicated member of the Justice Fund Committee, the Bible Study group and is Chair of the tenacious Memorial Garden Committee for creation remains.  Doing photo/journalism is her secret desire.
The outline of this report was produced during our last two evenings in Port-au-Prince, January 20-21-2005. The narrative was later completed by Melinda Miles, our energetic leader, with comments and editing by a co-leader and the other women delegates.

While this Report focuses extensively on the destruction of women’s rights due to violence, insecurity and the failure of the judicial system, I am hopeful that later reports will focus on the lack of potable water, malnutrition of infants and pregnant women, basic hunger affecting impoverished families and education. These are areas which cry out for attention and where we can, perhaps, take action and make a difference.

Originally, my plans were to travel to Haiti with a small delegation from St. Joan of Arc, under the leadership of Paul Miller. When Paul’s father became seriously ill, the trip was canceled and I joined the Let Haiti Live Women’s Rights Delegation to Haiti led by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY director, Melinda Miles of Jacmel and by a member of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, who documents human rights abuses. Paul Miller, the Haiti Man, continued to be my mentor as I prepared for this journey.

Five other women joined the delegation; three from California , one from Washington DC, and one, a US citizen living in Cuba.

We met with grassroots women’s groups, human rights activists, community organizations, and national agencies. We interviewed Haitian women from a range of backgrounds and learned about the challenges they face every day and the dismal status of their social, economic and political human rights. We heard heartrending anecdotes from the poor. The story of these brave women, the backbone of Haiti, is a story of poverty, violence, injustice, a lack of the most basic of social benefits. Yet, with unaccountable joy, they continue to have hope for themselves, their children and their country.

FON FANM, an emergency fund for rape victims, has been set up by The Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Donations are gratefully accepted Checks can be made to KONPAY and put Women's Assistance/FonFanm on the memo line. Send it to the KONPAY office in Massachusetts: KONPAY, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA 01930.

-Marlys Weber

Rewinding History: The Rights of Haitian Women
Let Haiti Live Women's Rights Delegation
January 2005

Introduction
The Backbone of Haiti

In a climate of deep insecurity and escalating violence, Haitian women, the backbone of Haitian society and economy, are facing insurmountable challenges. Although Haitian women support the majority of Haiti's economic activities and hold families together throughout the country, they have historically occupied an inferior social position. Under the present regime of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, Haitian women are caught in the middle of what many Haitians are calling a "rewind" back to the time of the 1991-94 coup d'etat, a period characterized by random violence in poor neighborhoods, a terror campaign employing rape, murder and disappearance as tactics, and rapidly increasing insecurity undermining all economic activity of the informal sector.

In this setting the international community, led by the United States and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), is pushing for elections before year's end, in apparent disregard that legitimate democratic elections cannot possibly be held in the current climate. The international aid industry is rolling into action and is ready to program more than a billion dollars, which will do little to change the standard of living for the Haitian poor. Most of this aid will benefit either the Haitian elite or return to donor countries in the form of private contracts. The Interim Haitian Government (IHG), considered illegitimate by the majority of Haitians, is made up of representatives from the private sector. Their interests are clearly served by the on-going decimation of the informal sector - Haiti's poor, while they enjoy tax breaks and anticipate the profits of Haiti's international assistance, which in the end will add to Haiti's already burdensome international debt.

From January 13-22, 2005, a delegation of eight independent women investigated women's rights in Haiti. They traveled under the auspices of the Let Haiti Live: Coalition for a Just U.S. Policy, a collaborative effort of over fifty North American organizations.  EPICA, the Ecumenical Program for Central America and the Caribbean,  a Washington, DC-based peace and justice organization, sponsored the team.

The majority of the investigation was carried out in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, with one day in a rural area. The following is a summary of briefings, observations and recommendations.

Summary of Observations and Briefings

I. Violation of Women's Rights Due to Violence and Insecurity

The climate in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital is one of deep insecurity and escalating violence. The delegation witnessed firsthand the climate of violence that exists in Port-au-Prince. During the delegation's stay, the team observed a body in front of the National Palace.  The group was briefed on summary executions by the police and armed groups that occur daily in the capital.

Masked police guarding katyè popilè
In some zones of Port-au-Prince it was unsafe to pass early in the day because of frequent arson attacks taking place while cars are stuck in traffic jams. Haitians spoke of their unwillingness to be on the road during certain hours because of these incidents. Due to the fact that two major parts of the city - Bel Air and Delmas 2 - have been completely isolated by violence and insecurity, traffic crowds other routes. During the heavy travel hours each morning, small groups of armed individuals have held drivers and passengers at gunpoint while setting their cars on fire. Sometimes drivers are forced to burn their own cars. The delegation observed the burned out remains of dozens of cars in different areas of the city notorious for these attacks.

The most impoverished and overpopulated neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, known as katyè popilè, have become war zones where feuding gangs, some of which are funded by political organizations, are victimizing tens of thousands of innocent civilians. While traveling to St. Catherine's Hospital in Cite Soleil, an area that has been gripped by gang violence, the delegation observed the remains of arson attacks in the zone. The team heard repeated testimony that these armed groups are raping women and young girls, robbing families and burning homes.

Ann Hastings, director of FONKOZE
This general insecurity is affecting women on several different levels. With sections of the city closed, economic activity has been greatly impeded (details below, Violation of Economic Rights). FONKOZE, a national organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing women's economic activities, noted that with economic insecurity women are forced into vulnerable and compromised situations with men. As a result, there has been a rise in incidents of forced sex. Members of the national labor movement, Confederation des Travailleurs Haitienne (CTH) explained that due to the lack of economic opportunities in both formal and informal sectors women are having sex for money. A number of sources confided to the team that women and girls who cannot afford to attend school are having sex with older men to finance their educations.

When looked at in tandem with the rise in forced sex, the recent spike in politically motivated rapes is a clear indication that women's bodies are being abused sexually as a result of increasing insecurity. The increase in frequency of rapes was confirmed by the director of the gynecology department at the General Hospital. Testimony from victims of rapes heard by the delegation highlighted several patterns in the attacks. Attackers beat their victims into submission, often striking their eyes so they will not be able to identify them. Attackers are often masked and heavily armed. Women are usually raped by more than one attacker, and the victims' children are often witnesses to the rape. After the attack, most women have nowhere else to go and are forced to return to the location of their rape (their homes and the yards in front of their homes) to sleep at night.

Women accused armed bandits/gang members of committing the rapes, but most cannot identify their attacker(s) either because they were masked or because the victim was beaten and could not see the identity of her attacker(s). Most victims have been forced to find alternative places to stay and are afraid to go out during the day. Children conceived during rapes are deeply stigmatized in Haiti. One woman told the team that her daughter is taunted with the name "little rape" by the other children in her neighborhood.

In one neighborhood a Women's Commission for Victims of Rape has been created and has received nearly fifty new victims since September 30,2004.  They hold meetings with women from katyè popile`(impoverished, overpopulated areas, known as Popular Neighborhoods) and they record new rape victims each week.

Rape victims share their stories with the delegation and each other.
The team was shocked and angered to learn that rapes are treated as an infraction in the eyes of the Haitian law, and although rape was a prevalent tool of political repression during the 1991-94 coup period, no rape has ever been prosecuted in Haiti. A spokesperson at the Ministry of Women's Affairs stated that the law regarding rape has recently been changed, but until perpetrators of these brutal crimes are brought to justice this change will have no impact.

In addition to the ways in which women's bodies are sexually abused, other physical abuse is part of the political repression as well. The team heard repeated testimony of women who were beaten and robbed in their homes, on the way to the market or at the market. Arson attacks in poor neighborhoods have also left women and their children without shelter. Some have been forced to climb high into the hills above their neighborhoods to sleep in makeshift refugee camps on open rocks.

II. Violation of Women's Economic Rights
The public transportation trucks are called TapTaps. They are so crowded, folks hang off the back.

The majority of struggling Haitian women find their livelihoods in the informal sector. Women who sell produce and other goods in the market are called ti machann, little merchants. Many women work as domestic laborers, or cook food to sell on the street. In addition, women run most households in Haiti. They spend inordinate amounts of time carrying non-potable water from public faucets or pumps.  They prepare meals for their children, wash laundry, and are also required to earn enough money to put food on the table each day.

The informal sector is reeling from the Interim Haitian Government's (IHG) decision to raise import tariffs on the merchandise they import for resale in the market. At the same time, the IHG granted a three-year grace period on taxes to the largest business owners. In addition, following the coup d'etat on February 29th, thousands of government workers were fired. According to the CTH(Confederation des Travailleurs Haitienne) labor movement, there are 80,000 fewer workers employed in industry than there were one year ago. The consequence is that a large number of newly unemployed people are forced to integrate into an already crowded informal sector.

Members of FOPEP, Women's Union, part of CTH (Confederation of Haitian Workers). Largest union in Haiti. Founded the National Feminist Movement.
Haiti's industries are concentrated on assembly of clothing, and jobs in the industrial sector are mainly given to young women. According to CTH, the minimum wage of 70 Haitian gourdes (about $2 U.S.) is barely enough to cover the cost of transportation to and from the factory each day. A woman with a factory job would be lucky to return home with 7 gourdes at the end of the day, not enough to feed her family more than once or twice each week.

According to CTH, forced sex appears in the context of economic human rights of women as well. This is because in the formal sector, such as assembly factories, women are forced to have sex with their managers in order to keep their jobs. In the informal sector, women are often forced to have sex while transporting goods to market.

The grave issue of food insecurity was brought to the delegation's attention not only in urban areas, but in rural areas as well. Cheap imported goods have been undercutting national production for decades according to Tet Kole Ti Peyizan, a national peasant movement. Hunger is a part of daily life for most Haitians. Women are not allowed to own land, putting them at a further disadvantage. A woman may work her husband's plot of land in hopes of selling the produce to provide food for herself and her children. But when it is time to sell the harvest, it is her husband who will have the legal rights to all the funds received from his wife's work.

Idle and antiquated operating room at St. Catherine's Hospital
As observed by the delegation, the state of health care in Port-au-Prince has collapsed. The great majority of the Haitian population is without access to adequate health care. Hospitals are without equipment, materials and even electricity. The delegation visited Port-au-Prince's General Hospital during week four of a doctor's strike. Although there were patients in the different wards, there were no doctors to attend to them. Even when doctors are present, patients have to bring all the equipment necessary for their consultations and treatment. Those who require surgery must provide gas for the generator to ensure there will be power for the entire procedure.

At St. Catherine's Hospital in Cite Soleil the delegation witnessed rooms that stand empty while the residents of the neighborhood go without basic care because funding for the facility has dried up. Rural women are often without modern medicine. The cost in women's lives is very high, with many women lost in childbirth. Tet Kole national peasant movement reported a high rate of cervical cancer and infectious diseases among rural women, as well as eclampsia-related deaths, a condition confirmed to be prevalent by  St. Catherine's Director and doctors on strike at the General Hospital.

The Let Haiti Live Women's Delegation was comprised of 8 women, including our own Marlys Weber. Leader was Melinda Miles from Let Haiti Live. The trip was sponsored by EPICA (Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean), a nonprofit, faith-based organization in solidarity with the poor of Central America, Mexico & the Caribbean.
Finally, while education is an unrealized dream for the majority of impoverished Haitians, for women it is an especially distant goal. As mentioned last week, some girls resort to having sex with older or wealthy men in order to raise funds for their school fees. Families that can afford to send one or two of their children to school will often send boys rather than girls. In response to the number of children not attending school, spontaneous or improvised schools are being organized by women's groups. These schools suffer from lack of space, materials and funding to pay teachers.

Continue on to PART II of Rewinding History.

Marlys wrote a letter of thanks to her friends, family and supporters. It contains her personal thoughts. View Marlys' letter.



Back