by Agnieszka Napierala

08 March 2013

Miragoâne, Haiti: As a long-time human rights activist, wherever I am, I always try to integrate civil society, to support it and to share experiences. This is also one of the reasons why I decided to make a career break and to become a UN Volunteer with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme.

While I was getting to know civil society better, in mid-November I came across the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Miragoâne (Haiti). Since 1993, 25 November is the best occasion to break and rebreak the silence around gender-based violence (GBV). Unfortunately, as in many places around the world, millions of women and girls are beaten, raped and assaulted in Haiti. I intuitively knew that I had to do my absolute best to help women and girls from the Haitian department of Nippes to raise their voices too.

After knocking on a few doors we found available budget within the United Nations Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to organize a celebration. And we had only 4 days to go until the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Despite a transportation strike that paralyzed the city of Miragoâne and the whole department of Nippes, more than 200 women attended that day. As foreseen in the program, the celebration started with a mass followed by a march across the city to the hotel where a conference was held. During the march, women were distributing leaflets with useful information for potential and current victims of violence.

The conference also gathered representatives of the local authorities and the media. The main concern of women was the impunity granted to the perpetrators of such violence. They gave an example of a man who, a few days before in Miragoâne, raped a woman. This man was released from the arrest without consent of the parties and without having been judged. A representative of justice who took part in the conference promised to strengthen efforts to avoid such situations in the future.

In addition, women have also been promised free registration of women’s organizations in the department of Nippes (it currently costs HTG 600, approximately EUR 10).

At the end of the event, many women came to me, thankful for this opportunity to meet and to express their concerns. It was easy to see how much such events are needed and that the fight against GBV is far from over. For me it was a great boost for further action in the future.

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Bio: Agnieszka Napierala has been based in Miragoâne (Haiti) since June 2012. She graduated from the Poznan University of Economics and the Paris Institute of Political Science. For a few years she worked in marketing and then in development and management programmes with the European Commission. Up until June 2012 she worked as an election advisor, a UN Volunteer for the Peacekeeping Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI). As a long-time human rights activist she's most interested in social photography.