UN reports and human rights investigations in 2025 documented the systematic sexual enslavement of girls as young as 10 years old by Haitian gang networks, with criminal organizations using sexual violence and forced marriage as tools of territorial control and as forms of reward for male gang members. The scale and systematic nature of the sexual exploitation of children represented one of the most severe dimensions of a human rights crisis that the UN had described as unprecedented in Haiti’s modern history.
Girls captured in gang raids on communities, recruited through offers of food and protection to desperate families, or seized as the daughters or sisters of perceived enemies were subjected to sexual violence that left lasting physical and psychological damage. Some were held in gang-controlled compounds for extended periods, unable to escape or access any form of assistance. Their existence was known to communities and humanitarian organizations but largely inaccessible given the security conditions.
Child protection organizations that were able to reach some survivors documented the specific consequences of sexual slavery for child development: disrupted education, physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, unintended pregnancies in girls far too young to safely bear children, and severe post-traumatic stress that would require years of specialized support to address. The healthcare and psychosocial support services needed for these children were essentially unavailable at the necessary scale.
UNICEF and international child protection organizations called for sexual violence against children to be treated as a priority emergency within the broader Haiti response, with specific funding for survivor services, protection monitoring, and accountability for perpetrators. They argued that the international community’s failure to adequately address the sexual exploitation of children in Haiti was itself a form of complicity in ongoing harm that demanded urgent corrective action.