For the past several years, Haiti has been facing a “triple crisis” of escalating insecurity, political paralysis, and deepening humanitarian need. Despite national efforts, the security situation continues to deteriorate, with gangs using violence to control critical infrastructure and disrupt essential services, generating illicit income and exerting territorial control.
Gangs have systematically used sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) to control territory, carry out reprisals, and intimidate the local population. Between January and September 2025, the United Nations verified 1,361 incidents of sexual violence by armed actors, involving 1,452 survivors; the majority of survivors are women (90%), and 139 cases involved children. Due to severe underreporting, these figures likely represent only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, humanitarian actors reported over 3,500 cases of rape during the same period. The UN has observed that sexual violence is facilitated by widespread access to smuggled military-grade weapons and ammunition.
A new opportunity to tackle these problems emerged in September 2025 when the UN Security Council adopted a resolution transforming the Multinational Security Support Mission into a Gang Suppression Force (GSF). This new mandate, if paired with strengthened national criminal justice and prevention capacities, offers a window to tackle the link between firearms’ proliferation and SGBV. In particular, the UN system and regional partners should comprehensively address illicit flows of weapons and implement gender-sensitive arms control by, among other measures, strengthening data collection and analysis on firearm-related SGBV; strengthening capacities of Haitian institutions; and prioritizing an inclusive approach involving women’s groups, civil society, and survivors.
Gangs, weapons and sexual violence in Haiti
The main gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, controls approximately 85% of Port-au-Prince, while other gangs exert influence in the Artibonite, West, and Central departments, exposing residents to massacres, sexual violence, child recruitment, and abductions. Sexual violence in gang-controlled areas mainly takes the form of gang rape, often committed during home invasions or while victims are walking in the street, sometimes in front of family members or accompanied by the murder of a partner. Most cases involve a firearm. While armed actors are not the only ones involved in sexual violence, gangs remain the main perpetrators.
Gangs are increasingly obtaining high-caliber and military-grade firearms and ammunition through air, sea and land routes, mostly originating from the United States through the Caribbean. There are currently an estimated 500,000 illegal firearms in circulation in Haiti. Lack of resources and inspection capabilities, as well as diversion or theft from public and private stocks, also fuel these flows. Some criminal groups therefore possess firepower that exceeds law enforcement capabilities. The proliferation of weapons is closely linked to sexual violence. Firearms are used to commit rape, cause injury or death, and intimidate, control and silence victims, undermining the rule of law and indirectly increasing the incidence of SGBV.
Despite severe challenges, Haitian authorities and international partners are taking steps to address SGBV and curb illicit arms flows. However, these measures are often fragmented and under-resourced. For example, at the national level, Haiti has adopted a National Strategy on Disarmament, Dismantling and Reintegration and Community Violence Reduction (DDR-CVR),[1] which recognizes the heightened risk of sexual exploitation among women and girls but lacks concrete actions to address the incidence of SGBV or indicators to assess progress. Haiti has also endorsed the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap as a regional initiative to reduce illicit arms flows, which is reflected in a National Firearms Action Plan. Yet, this initiative lacks reference to the gendered dimension of illicit firearms or their impact on SGBV.
Some policies have been slowed down amid the current political instability. For example, a draft Firearms Bill, which aligns with international arms control instruments, contains provisions to prevent the use of firearms for sexual violence by allowing the suspension of firearm licences when such risk is reported. This draft bill has been under review by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security for at least 18 months at the time of writing.
New opportunities for action
The UN Security Council has mandated the GSF to use all necessary measures to counter gangs, seize firearms, and provide the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the Armed Forces of Haiti (FADH) with expertise and training, including on the prevention of and response to sexual violence. The GSF will receive logistical and operational support from a new UN Support Office in Haiti (UNSOH), which will coordinate with the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the Organization of American States, and Haitian authorities.
Prevention of sexual violence, accountability mechanisms, and arms control are highlighted in the mandates of both BINUH and the GSF. As this configuration takes shape, effective coordination between the GSF, UNSOH, BINUH, other UN agencies (including those implementing the UN’s development cooperation framework), and national institutions will be essential to tackle SGBV in a comprehensive manner. This approach offers an opportunity to address the proliferation of weapons and SGBV more systematically, particularly in three areas.
Improving the collection and sharing of disaggregated data
Despite political instability and a volatile security context, the PNH are still operational, and recent reports have shown they are conducting active operations along with a Government-established anti-gang task force supported by private military contractors, seizing weapons, and arresting gang members. The PNH, along with other law enforcement authorities, should collect disaggregated data on SGBV, documenting the firearms involved (origin, specifications, type, role in coercion). Data collection must be standardized and use trauma-informed interview techniques to avoid re-traumatization. Information-sharing protocols should ensure survivors are never put at risk.
In 2022, the UN Security Council established a sanctions regime and arms embargo on Haiti, targeting those who support or engage in firearms trafficking, gang violence, and human rights abuses, including SGBV. As of February 2026, seven individuals had been sanctioned for criminal activities, five of them including SGBV. The panel of experts monitoring the sanctions regularly reports on violations of the arms embargo and SGBV cases, highlighting their incidence. Nonetheless, enforcement of the embargo is weak due to limited cooperation between states and insufficient resources for monitoring. Through BINUH’s mandate to monitor and report on SGBV, the mission should collect and analyse data on weapons involved as part of its ongoing efforts. Better information on the use of firearms could enhance accountability by identifying trends and patterns among armed gangs, inform prevention activities by the mission, support monitoring and implementation of the arms embargo and sanctions regime, and where necessary, inform revision of its scope.
Enhanced data collection by both BINUH and national authorities can improve prevention and accountability. Such data, including analysis of weapons, can inform more robust counter-proliferation strategies. In addition, it can guide advisory bodies such as the Working Group on DDR-CVR, support gender-sensitive assessments of regulatory and policy frameworks governing weapons and ammunition, and advance implementation of national strategies like the National Action Plan on Firearms and the National Strategy on DDR-CVR.
Strengthening the capacities of national actors
Both BINUH and the GSF have mandates to strengthen the capacity of the PNH and FADH. Providing resources, training, and logistical support can improve responses to sexual violence, including specialized training on investigations, evidence management, and survivor protection, particularly in gang-related cases. Raising awareness of the role that arms control and disarmament play in preventing SGBV should be part of national and local capacity building.
BINUH and specialized UN entities, such as the UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC); UN Office on Drugs and Crime; and UN Development Programme, are supporting the PNH and customs authorities to counter firearms trafficking and strengthen arms control. UNLIREC will notably train criminal justice officials on integrating gender perspectives into responses to firearms-related crime and on using arms control to prevent SGBV.
An effective response must, however, go beyond law enforcement. The justice system is essential to ensure justice for survivors, strengthen the rule of law, and restore social cohesion. A positive development in this regard is the creation of a specialized judicial unit for mass crimes, including SGBV, which could accelerate accountability. Training judges and prosecutors to identify links between illicit firearms and SGBV will enable effective and transparent investigations. Sustained investment in judicial capacity, particularly to accelerate investigations and prosecutions through survivor-centred approaches, is essential.
Including women, survivors and civil society organizations in prevention
Local survivor-led advocacy and community protection organizations, such as Nègès Mawon, Kay Fanm and Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, play a critical role in documenting sexual violence and providing assistance and protection for survivors. They are often the first to document, verify and respond to incidents of SGBV due to restricted access to gang-controlled areas. Past experiences like the withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali show that engaging with and building the capacity of local civil society are essential for sustaining efforts to prevent, respond to, and report on SGBV.
The UN and its partners should invest in technical and financial support to strengthen local actors’ operational capacity, enabling them to reach survivors in hard-to-access areas. A dedicated mechanism could be envisaged to ensure that UNSOH and BINUH regularly consult with civil society and to provide feedback loops on illicit firearms trafficking and its links to SGBV, informing UN protection priorities. The UN and its partners could also support community violence reduction programs that promote alternative models of masculinity and break the association between virility and firearms.
Looking ahead
On 29 January 2026, the UN Security Council gave BINUH a new mandate to work in an “integrated manner” with all UN entities in Haiti on monitoring sexual violence and supporting Haitian authorities in implementing arms control measures. This, together with the deployment of the GSF and UNSOH, presents an opportunity to address the links between illicit firearms trafficking and SGBV in Haiti. This will require close coordination between intelligence and operations, DDR-CVR mechanisms, national agencies, and other relevant actors. Such coherence could link security operations to disengagement and reintegration pathways, particularly for children recruited by gangs. However, the international community should exercise sustained vigilance to ensure that the GSF does not become a source of sexual exploitation and abuse, as it happened during the previous UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti. Member States must therefore establish stringent vetting mechanisms and provide comprehensive, mandatory training to all personnel to prevent any occurrence of sexual abuse.
Ultimately reducing sexual violence and other forms of violence in Haiti requires addressing the illicit trafficking of weapons within an integrated strategy combining security, criminal justice, governance and social transformation. Centred on survivors and disaggregated data, this strategy should address both structural gender inequality and the immediate dynamics of violence in Haiti. Success could be measured through reduced cases of SGBV, strengthened national frameworks (for example, a firearms law better able to prevent sexual violence facilitated by firearms), increased national capacity to respond to SGBV, and meaningful participation of survivors and civil society in prevention efforts.
An earlier version of this article was originally published in the Global Observatory.
[1] The strategy was adopted in 2021 and is founded on four axes of intervention: (1) security, (2) economic recovery and strengthening community capacities, (3) community and social mobilization and citizen engagement, and (4) protection. SGBV is mentioned directly in the axis on strengthening community capacities and indirectly in the protection axis when referring to vulnerable populations, including women and girls who are victims of armed violence.
