24Jan/11Off
HAITI: Rape Prevalent in Months Following Earthquake
Terra Portal (Brazil) reported on 24 January that at least 264 women are reported to have been raped in the five months after the earthquake in January 2010; more than half of the victims were underage. A survey conducted by UNFPA and the Haitian Ministry of Public Health found that the pregnancy rate in camps for displaced and homeless in the capital, Port au Prince, is three times higher than in ordinary neighborhoods of Haiti's capital. Some could be "children of rape." According to the Brazilian ambassador to Haiti, Igor Kipmanm, sexual violence is "a serious problem” and some cases have a cultural motivation, where young people rape someone in order to be respected as adult males. Read in Portuguese: Terra Portal