Haitian women’s organizations responded to the assassination of President Moïse with a combination of shock, grief, and determination to ensure that women’s voices and interests were central to whatever political process emerged from the crisis. They recognized that moments of political transition in Haiti had historically tended to reinscribe masculine political power rather than open space for women’s leadership.
Women’s groups across the political spectrum issued statements calling for women to be included in any transitional governance arrangements, noting that the Montana Accord process and the international community’s selection of Ariel Henry had both proceeded without meaningful inclusion of women in decision-making roles. They argued that the failure to include women in political transitions was itself a form of political exclusion that perpetuated the conditions contributing to Haiti’s governance failures.
The security crisis that followed the assassination had specific gendered dimensions. Gang violence against women, including systematic sexual violence used as a tool of territorial control, was documented at increasing rates in 2021. Women’s organizations reported that the collapse of law enforcement in gang-controlled areas had removed whatever limited protections had previously existed against gender-based violence, and that impunity for sexual violence was essentially total in areas of gang control.
Women’s health organizations noted that the multiple crises of 2021 were also a reproductive health emergency. Access to maternal health services, family planning, and care for survivors of sexual violence was severely disrupted by the security situation and the diversion of health resources to other emergency demands. Maternal mortality, already unacceptably high, was likely to worsen as a result of these disruptions.