Haiti opens first state-supported safe houses for women and girls, as gangs continue to weaponize sexual violence
Remarks by Marie Goretti Nduwayo, UN Women Representative in Haiti – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 12 June.
[As prepared]
The opening of Haiti's first state-supported safe houses – known as Women’s Houses – for survivors of violence is a moment of hope, and a painful reminder of the dangers that women and girls face here.
On the ground, I am hearing from women and girls that rape is being increasingly used as a tool by the gangs to terrorize and control communities. We can see this in the data.
In 2025, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) verified 1,863 cases of sexual violence. This includes 1,668 women, 187 girls, two men and six boys and represents a 163 per cent increase compared with 2024.
During the first three months of this year, sexual violence accounted for more than 70 per cent of reported gender-based violence cases.
There are also reports of digital technologies and platforms being used by perpetrators to preserve images of sexual assault to extort or further humiliate victims.
Gang violence – once concentrated in here in Port au Prince – is now spreading across the country, forcing nearly 1.47 million people from their homes, including 790,000 women and girls.
Women and girls living in displacement sites face some of the highest levels of vulnerability. A UN Women report finds that gender-based violence was reported in all 22 sites that we surveyed.
Most displacement sites do not have adequate lighting. Most do not have functioning locks in bathrooms or separate facilities for women and men. These conditions put women and girls at further risk of violence.
We are also seeing that dedicated services for survivors are extremely limited, including psychosocial and legal support, which remain largely unavailable.
The mental health toll has been so huge that women repeatedly tell me that they no longer recognize their lives. The violence that they survived follows them every day, and every night, even as they sleep. Their memories are of their houses being burnt down, of gunmen following them into the forests, of family members and friends killed in front of them.
Mothers have told me how they used to grow fruits and vegetables, run small businesses, and generate incomes that their families relied on. Today, extortion at illegal checkpoints on gang-controlled roads, repetitive kidnappings and sexual violence have left women and girls fearing for their safety and leaving them unable to even take part in daily life.
At the same time, the pressure on women has increased immensely.
Before displacement, the vast majority of women had some form of income-generating activity, often through informal trade or small businesses. Today, only a fraction has access to these opportunities. In displacement sites, our data shows that more than 80 per cent of women are unemployed. Yet it is women who continue to take care of most household responsibilities and expenses.
We have also witnessed a complete deterioration in access to healthcare, education, safe water, and sanitation. More than 1,600 schools have been forced to close. Nearly 40 per cent of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are no longer functioning.
Alongside immense suffering, women are increasingly leading local humanitarian, peace and security efforts. An example of this is the increased participation in displacement site committees from just 2 per cent in September 2024 to more than 40 per cent in 2025.
Women’s organizations are supporting survivors of violence, providing cash transfers, helping families access services and the basics, and strengthening protection, participation, prevention and recovery within communities.
UN Women supports these organizations and is working with the State and UN entities to provide lifesaving support to women and girls and help them rebuild their lives.
The opening of Haiti's first state-supported safe houses – led by the Ministry of Women’s Welfare and Women’s Rights, with support from UN Women – is an important milestone in the response to gender-based violence specifically. But the needs are growing and international aid to Haiti has collapsed.
Women and girls urgently need expanded gender-based violence prevention and response services, increased food and cash assistance, access to healthcare and education, support to rebuild livelihoods, and increased funding for women-led organizations on the front lines of the response.
The women and girls of Haiti have shown incredible resilience, but this resilience alone cannot be the answer. Women and girls in Haiti need safety and protection, and they need the international community to respond.
