The violence ravaging Haiti threatens children’s fundamental rights to life, education, clean water, sanitation, health and nutrition, warned Tuesday the Committee on the Rights of the Childurging immediate action to protect this population group.
The Committee expressed great concern about the triple scourge that hangs over the children of the Caribbean country: cholera, malnutrition and violencewhich implies serious violations of their human rights.
The 18 members of the Committee pointed out that the growing insecurity in Haiti has prevented most children from going to school in the current academic year, which began in October.
The anger returns
In addition, after three years free of cholera, the country is registering an outbreak again with hundreds of suspected cases, dozens of confirmed cases and 36 deaths from the disease until mid-October, according to data from the Pan American Health Organization.
Cholera not only puts health at risk, but the very lives of 1.2 million children who live in the areas where the cases have been reported.
The Committee noted that violence, insecurity, and economic hardship have left many of Haiti’s poorest families no access to clean water, soap for handwashing and other basic sanitation serviceswhich increases the risk of contracting the disease.
Hospitals, meanwhile, are operating on a limited basis as a result of fuel shortages and insecurity.
Regarding child nutrition, the Committee noted that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) figure in 100,000 children under five years with severe acute malnutrition. “The situation is alarming as malnourished children are at even greater risk from the ongoing cholera outbreak,” experts warned.
sexual violence
As if that were not enough, many Haitian children are in danger of being recruited, kidnapped, wounded or killed by armed gangs.
Likewise, one in four girls and one in five boys have been sexually abused in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
The Committee has received reports of children as young as ten years of age who have been subjected to multiple rapes for hours in front of their parents, who have been able to do nothing to defend them from the atrocities committed by the gangs. Most of these victims have been girls.
Protect the rights of children
“The international community must act immediately to support the national authorities in guaranteeing the rights of millions of Haitian children to live, grow, learn and prosper in a climate free of violence”, stated the Committee, which also urged Haiti to comply with its international obligations human rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
In particular, the Committee called on all government authorities and non-state actors to protect the rights of all Haitian children and facilitate access to humanitarian assistance for the most vulnerable families.
