More than nine months after the devastating January 12 earthquake in Haiti that claimed an estimated 230,000 lives, the survivors are still feeling the impact of a disaster that has left many of them susceptible to increased physical insecurity and violations of their fundamental rights. These include more than one million internally displaced people, up to 250,000 newly disabled people, women and children, and other groups with unique protection needs.

Protection focuses on the safety, dignity, and rights of people. It involves taking into account people’s vulnerability to the violation of those rights and taking the necessary steps to reduce the risk and respond to violations. It also means looking within communities and identifying who among them is even more at risk and thus in need of special consideration and attention.

At the nine-month mark post-earthquake, the member organizations of the InterAction Protection Working Group decided to issue a comprehensive examination of the current state of protection efforts in Haiti. Our findings are troubling: insecurity in many areas of Port au Prince is worsening; crowding in camps remains a problem; the discontinuation of mass food distributions has had adverse effects on some vulnerable populations, including women who are driven to engage in survival sex; and the security presence both in and outside camps remains minimal, leaving women and children especially vulnerable to gender-based violence and trafficking.

In the following pages this report presents common themes and overarching recommendations, before focusing on groups of people especially at risk in Haiti today: women, children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. It discusses the specific challenges and recommended response to gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. Finally, it treats critical systems and sectors in which a more effective protection response is vital: camp coordination and camp management; shelter; migration and internal displacement; access to documentation; and disaster risk reduction.

While specific analysis and recommendations are presented within each section, the following summarizes the key recommendations:

·         To enhance protection, participation and inclusion of affected people are essential. Women need to be involved in planning the relief and recovery effort, as well as in managing the emergency camps. Holding meetings in French and Creole will make participation more feasible and meaningful for representative organizations of Haitian civil society.

·         There needs to be a comprehensive plan developed to improve security for women and girls that involves MINUSTAH (the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti), the government and its security forces, women’s groups, and member agencies of the GBV sub-cluster.

·         Investment in community-level jobs and income generation programs is vital, with a special focus on women’s access. Livelihoods programs must focus on earthquake survivors and host communities outside of the capital in addition to those in and around Port au Prince.

·         Essential child protection initiatives include reducing the number of children in institutions, with a focus on family reunification; investing in formal and informal education efforts; and taking targeted steps to reduce child labor and trafficking.

·         A greater response is needed to vulnerable Haitians outside the capital and those choosing to migrate to the Dominican Republic. Countries hosting Haitian migrants should be urged to continue to stay deportations on humanitarian grounds.

·         The slow progress towards creating safe transitional shelter results from the inability of the Haitian government to address questions of land and property rights. Without community consultation and the resolution of land tenure issues, no large-scale progress on shelter is possible.

In leading and coordinating the international protection response, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees should join and support the efforts of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs should appoint a stand-alone Humanitarian Coordinator given the immense challenges posed by the current level of vulnerability in Haiti.

InterAction Policy Paper Haiti Protection.pdf