In April 2022, The Guardian highlighted Channel partner the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) in an article on their work to win justice for women and girls who have been raped and experienced other forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Since the assassination of Haiti’s president in 2021, sexual violence linked to armed gangs in Haiti has escalated. IJDH and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), their Haiti-based partner, set up the Rape Accountability and Prevention Project (RAPP) in the wake of the dramatic rise in sexual violence predominantly against women in displacement camps after the country’s 2010 earthquake. Since then, RAPP has combined legal service, medico-legal partnerships, community organizing, and advocacy to serve survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Channel has supported RAPP since its inception and believes it serves a model for the kind of deep and thoughtful long term change work necessary to truly eradicate SGBV.
BAI lawyer Gladys Thermezi told the Guardian, “We have an obstacle in getting justice and that is the judicial system. We are fighting the system.” Despite the prevalence of corruption, victim-blaming, and stigma, Thermezi and her fellow lawyers remain steadfast in their fight to speak up for these women.
Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/AP
