sTraTegies for gender jusTice
Women’s Link Worldwide looks at access to justice – what recourse in law is available to an adolescent girl subjected to sexual violence in post-disaster Haiti? 59,60 on 12 January 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. At least 200,000 people died as a result, 61 and an additional 1.5 million people are estimated to have lost their homes and now live in one of 1,300 camps for IdPs. 62 In recent years, different national and international actors, including Women’s Link Worldwide, have become aware that in times of humanitarian crisis, the destabilisation of social and family structures exacerbates gender-based power imbalances, making women and girls even more vulnerable to violations of their rights, but particularly their sexual and reproductive rights63 and their right to live free from violence. This can be clearly seen in the high rates of rape and sexual violence in displaced persons camps during every sort of humanitarian crisis, as well as in the use of rape, sexual violence and other forms of sexual exploitation of women and girls as a means of spreading terror and controlling the enemy in armed conflicts.64 Humanitarian response actions that fail to take into account gender-based imbalances risk intensifying this situation.65 ‘I doN’T feeL sAfe IN The CAMP’ An 18-year-old girl recounts her story of sexual violence in an IdP camp in haiti66 “After the earthquake, we slept in the streets. I was in agony; there were dead bodies and people crying. Two days later, we went back to the house to get some clothes and then straight to a camp. Five days after that, I found my mother. After six months in the camp, I was raped. A caseworker from the International Rescue Committee took me to the hospital, but it was too late – I was pregnant. I never saw the rapist again. I left the camp to stay with my aunt and, once the baby was born, I moved in with my mother, who was staying in a tent. There’s not enough security in the camp. I don’t feel safe: the same thing could happen to me again. We need more security and lights at night, and those rapists should go to prison.”
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The right to be free from violence and the implications for sexual & reproductive rights (sRR) in the context of disasters67 Within International human rights law (IHRL), girls and adolescents have the right to protection under a set of specific regulations intended to protect children and women.68 Human rights protection regulations in general also apply to them.69 These sets of rights are recognised in multiple international and regional treaties which in turn are supported by case law established by United Nations treaty bodies, the InterAmerican Commission and the Inter-American Court, and the European Court of Human Rights. International human rights law defines SRR as those rights that allow for the regulation and autonomous and responsible control over all matters relating to sexuality and reproduction, without coercion, violence, illness, or suffering of any kind.70 They include the right to decide autonomously how to experience one’s own sexuality and reproduction, as well as the right to have access to all the healthcare services necessary in order to make such decisions in a safe and timely fashion.71 The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health issued a special report calling for the immediate removal of all impeding restrictions to abortion, full access to modern contraceptive methods and complete and accurate information on sexual and reproductive health.72 CEDAW recommends that State parties should ensure that adequate protection and health services are provided for women, especially those in difficult circumstances, and international and national case law has developed the duty of States regarding the rights of girls in humanitarian crisis situations.73 This case law states that ending impunity and ensuring access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services for victims of serious human rights violations constitutes a form of reparation of the harm inflicted, which in turn is crucial for the recovery of the victim. The dire situation of Haiti and the pervasive harm done to girls and women resulted in action by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) who granted precautionary measures for the girls and women living in 22 camps for internally displaced persons.74 The IACHR called on the State of Haiti to adopt four types of measures to protect the rights of women and girls subjected to sexual violence in the camps.