Human rights violations against children in urban post-coup Haiti: Results from a multi-household survey

In February 2006 a violent coup overthrew the elected government of Haiti. Using Random GPS Coordinate Sampling, 1260 households, accounting for 2,198 children, were surveyed about experiences with human rights violations in the 22 months after the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Findings indicate that children were particularly at risk for human rights violations by political actors. More than half of the 35,000 estimated sexual assaults were against children ages 5-17, including a high number of rapes by members of the Haitian National Police and paramilitary groups associated with the disbanded Haitian army. Restaveks (children who work as unpaid domestic servants) were subjected to sexual assault by police officers at a higher rate than non-restavek children. Additionally, young people from households affiliated with a political party were significantly more likely to be subjected to illegal or arbitrary detentions by armed groups and government forces than children from households with no political party affiliation. Children were also victims of murder, physical assaults, and threats of physical and sexual violence. Human rights violations against children were committed by paramilitaries, government agents and common criminals, as well as foreign soldiers affiliated with the United Nations peacekeeping mission and the Multinational Forces (United States, France and Canada).