Human Trafficking

U.S State Department Releases 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report (Haiti)

  • Posted on: 6 July 2021
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

The U.S State Department has releaed its 2021 Trafficiking in Persons (TIP) reports.  Haiti is "Tier 2" country meaning it is falling short in many areas.  The economic downtown, political instability, and conflict increased vulnerability.  Of note, the government did not make efforts to combat child domestic slavery with estimates of the number of restaveks in Haiti as high as 300,000.  The number of street children has likely increased and "orphanage entrepeneurs" continue to operate unlicensed shelters as profit-making enterprises.  The concrete steps Haiti could take to improve prevention and response are laid out in the Haiti section of the report copied below. 

State Department Releases 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report

  • Posted on: 28 June 2017
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

The U.S State Department has released the 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reports.  The Haiti Country Narrative (copied below) notes that while Haiit does not meet minimum standards for preventing and responding to TIP, it is making significant efforts to improve.  This included strengthening its interministerial anti-trafficking commision, working more closely with international organizations, improving investigations and prosecutions and obtaining convinctions under the 2014 antri-trafficking law.  In short, progress is being made although much more remains to be done. 

Haiti Police Raid Exposes Child Sex Trafficking

  • Posted on: 8 February 2017
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

Anastasia Moloney (Reuters) reports that Haitian police have arrested nine people, Americans and Canadians, in connection with sex trafficking at the Kaliko Beach Club near Port au Prince.  In 2016, Haiti was downgraded to the lowest grade (level three) in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report meaning that no progress had been made before and that foreign assistance from the United States could be reduced in certain areas. Haiti does have a national TIP action plan but it has yet to be resourced or implemented.  The arrests may be a welcome sign that the government is beginning to take TIP more seriously.  

Haiti Moves Towards Adoption of Counter-Trafficking Law

  • Posted on: 16 May 2014
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

The FY 2013 Department of State Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report notes Haiti is a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking including 150,000 - 500,000 children (restaveks) in domestic servitude.  Given that, it is highly signficant that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped draft an anti-trafficking bill approved by the Haitian parliament.  It establishes a National Counter-Trafficking Committee and intends to improve prevention, prosecution, protection, and partnerships.

U.S. State Department Releases 2010 Human Rights Report for Haiti

  • Posted on: 11 April 2011
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

Each year, the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor  is mandated to release country specific human rights reports that address individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 2010 Human Rights Report for Haiti, attached and copied below, indicates much remains to be done.  Protecting human rights is a critical element of governance and one which the new administration must take on as institutions and infrastructure are reformed and reconstructed.   Protecting human rights will help Haiti become a country that is more fair and just for the whole population, not just the rich and powerful.

Interaction Releases Reports on Improving Protection and Preventing GBV in Haiti

  • Posted on: 3 November 2010
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

Most agree that efforts to protect the safety, dignity and rights of the most vulnerable populations (women, children, the disabled, the elderly, etc.) in post earthquake Haiti could and should have been more effective. Women and children are still vulnerable to a range of protection threats including sexual abuse/exploitation and human trafficking.  Interaction, an advocacy group for American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has released two reports, on improving protection and on preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV) respectively.  Both are thorough, well thought out, and are copied below.