Professor Margaret Satterthwaite '99, a Center for Human Rights and Global Justice faculty director, and Veerle Opgenhaffen, the center’s executive director, recently published a co-authored article, “Sexual Violence in Haiti’s IDP Camps: Survey Results,” in the new book Tectonic Shifts: Haiti Since the Earthquake, a collection of pieces about the political, social, and economic realities of post-earthquake Haiti. In their preliminary results, the CHRGJ investigators had found that sexual violence after the disaster was higher than previously recorded, and that young women, especially those suffering from extreme hunger, were particularly vulnerable to such violence.
Shortly after the devastating Haitian earthquake of January 2010, CHRGJ began its Project on Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Access to Food and Water in Post-Earthquake Haiti. Building on its previous work in Haiti, CHRGJ gathered data from residents of camps for the internally displaced (IDP camps) regarding the prevalence of gender-based violence in the camps, and worked to identify correlations between sexual violence and food- and water-related variables, as well as other variables related to economic and social rights.
Satterthwaite co-teaches the Global Justice Clinic, whose students, along with CHRGJ staff, participated in the project. In a video interview taped last year, Satterthwaite spoke about the methodology and goals of their work in post-earthquake Haiti.
Published on January 19, 2012