/snip/ Women and girls remain deeply vulnerable in the wake of the earthquake. What can the government, NGOs, or other organizations do to ensure their safety, particularly against the threat of rape in tent cities and elsewhere?
There have been a lot of rapes in the camps and they’ve been recorded even by institutions like CARE. Four major women’s organizations have created a forum mostly for advocacy on violence against women. They have also created a clinic for women victims of rape, sexual harassment and other types of violence where they are given medical and psychological care. In that process, they also document the cases so that they can eventually bring the cases to court.
The forum’s advocacy campaign convinced the Haitian Parliament to adopt two new laws: one on adultery - because it was very discriminatory against women - so there’s more equity towards women; and then the law on rape, because rape was not a crime in Haiti. The women’s organizations have been working a lot since the earthquake, going to camps, registering the cases, and also helping with the psychologists they have working for them. These women’s groups are doing a very good job, and they try to work as closely as possible with the Ministry of Women’s Rights, so that the government is engaged also in that process.
Haiti’s a deeply religious country. Can you talk a little about the role that faith institutions and faith traditions have played in Haitians’ response to the earthquake?
I think the churches were really hit hard by the earthquake. Usually in a situation like this, the voice of the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church or the Episcopalian Church would have been heard right after, because they have a huge constituency in the country and have played, and continue to play such an important role in Haiti. Lots of people are wondering why they remained so silent.
The Catholic Church has paid a high price. The cathedral and practically all the churches in the capital have been destroyed. The archbishop died under the rubble. Lots of priests and an incredible number of nuns and parishioners died when the churches collapsed. So it’s a huge, huge disaster to the Catholic Church. Moreover, a lot of Catholic schools also collapsed and many students died in those schools.
I had at least three meetings with the Nuncio, the diplomatic representative of the Vatican, since the earthquake and the last one was with the Cardinal of Boston who was visiting Haiti a few weeks ago. The Catholic Church says that its priority is to rebuild the Catholic schools. But at the same time, they need to know what the government’s reconstruction plan is. Now, the Episcopalians also lost a lot. They had a beautiful cathedral with murals from the most prominent Haitian painters, as well as a school for the handicapped and a music school, all of which collapsed.
All this said, people are praying a lot, in the streets, in the public places, on the rubbles, you can hear the prayers, the chants, and the cries sometimes. They also go to the Vodou temples. Some [commentators] from some Protestant sects have tried to imply that Haiti and Haitians are paying for their wrongdoings. But of course, that has nothing to do with reality. In fact, a lot of us were upset with this kind of interpretation of a natural phenomenon and with this idea of blaming the victim.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you to you. I hope it was useful.