Open letter urges Haiti’s new transitional council president to act on women’s rights

Editor’s note:
The following is an open letter, sent on Aug. 7, 2025, to Laurent Saint-Cyr as he assumed the presidency of Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council (CPT). Coordinated by the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and signed by more than 30 Haitian and international organizations, the letter calls for urgent measures to protect the rights of women and girls and to ensure their full participation in political life, including the elections scheduled before the CPT’s mandate ends in February 2026.

Mr. Saint-Cyr’s presidency is the final such term before the end of the TPC mandate in February. He thus holds the last opportunity to correct the transitional government’s clear violations of the rights of Haitian women and girls under Haitian and international law, even as we observe no meaningful steps towards ensuring that women will be able to shape and participate in the elections Mr. Saint-Cyr is obligated to organize during his term. 

The lack of adequate attention to women’s safety and inclusion – including ensuring their ability to fully participate as organizers, candidates, and voters in any elections – both blatantly violates women’s rights and risks exacerbating and entrenching gendered harms into Haiti’s future.

The failure of the Haitian government – and of its international partners – to respect the rights of Haiti’s women and girls in general is striking. As documented in IJDH’s most recent Human Rights Update and set out in the letter, Haiti has some of the most acute sexual violence and gendered privations in the world. Women also remain marginalized in or outright excluded from decision-making and leadership – the lack of a woman with a vote on the TPC is particularly on the nose. 

International actors are often not much better. It is deeply disturbing, for example, that in the recently introduced U.S. “bipartisan legislation which requires the State Department to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to confront the deepening crisis in Haiti and support a Haitian-led path to stability” there is zero mention of women and girls and their needs. 

This is contrary to the U.S. government’s own formal recognition of the global Women, Peace, and Security Agenda as both law and policy (notably both enacted under the previous Trump administration) – based on the insights that peace, democracy, and economic prosperity can only be achieved and sustained when women’s needs and leadership are centered.

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