Content Trigger Warning: Sexual & Gender-Based Violence
News of the “Cornell 7” is everywhere. Details emerge of a young woman drugged and raped in a fraternity house and the lack of consequences to the men. The press releases images of group texts offering this woman up to anyone in the house. 57 men were on that group chat.
And zero out of 57 did anything to stop this.
As horrifying as the actions of the men directly involved were, there is something uniquely disturbing knowing that dozens of others knew what was happening and did nothing.
During our ARMAS Advocacy Days, we heard from Souzen Joseph, Executive Director of 100% Fanm, about armed-gang violence in Haiti and the devastating and disproportionate impact on women and children.
In the first 6 months of 2026, the UN documented 6,450 cases of rape and gender-based violence in Haiti and 88% of those were gang rapes. This number represents cases reported; the number is likely higher. Just last week, the UN released its quarterly report on the situation in Haiti that included horrifying statistics of violence, death, rape, and child gang recruitment at the hands of armed groups.
Of the 1.47 million internally-displaced people, 792,000 are women and girls. These statistics cannot begin to explain what is actually happening. Armed gangs close off roads and markets, making it dangerous and often impossible for women to go to work. Women are attacked in their homes and on the streets. Rape is used to intimidate, subjugate and punish in communities that gangs have taken over.
When women cannot safely leave their homes, they can’t work, pay for school or food, or procure basic needs. 80% of internally-displaced women are unemployed. Without income, they are trapped and vulnerable.
Displacement brings many levels of danger to women and girls. Those living in camps do not have adequate lighting, protection, or even gender-separated bathrooms and shower facilities. Families with few options and resources send girls to live with friends or distant relatives in unfamiliar communities and become vulnerable to sexual violence and even incest. There is also an increase in displacement camps of transactional sex with adolescent girls and women who are looking for protection, food, and shelter.
Souzen Joseph makes the connection simple, “Guns enable rape, rape and fear drive displacement, displacement destroys income, and collapsed services leave women with nowhere to turn. Break the first link and the chain weakens.”
We know what is happening to women and girls in Haiti. The United States knows. The United Nations knows. The international community knows.
We also know that weapons trafficked from the United States fuel that violence.
We already have laws to stop it. The United Nations has an arms embargo on Haiti and the United States has laws prohibiting firearms trafficking. Yet, weapons and ammunition continue to flow through the ports and borders.
We are horrified that 57 men in a group chat received messages about what was happening in the next room to one woman and failed to intervene.
The United States government is in this group chat. When are they going to stop it? When will they effectively enforce their own regulations?
This is why we advocate for the ARMAS Act and the Stop Arming Cartels Act. Quixote Center also signed a letter, along with 147 other organizations, to Senators Murkowski and Collins to urge them to not only co-sponsor S. 4814 to re-instate Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, but also to enforce S. Res. 599, which “condemn[s] the systematic sexual violence and other gender-based harms directed at women and girls in Haiti and the accompanying lack of protection, services, and accountability.”
In Gros Morne, a community we have worked in for years, the IOM reports that an additional 8,500 people are internally displaced because of a massacre that took place two weeks ago. This is why we supported Camp Caritas to protect children and continue to disperse emergency funds for those fleeing gun violence to help with rent, basic needs, and school tuition.
This is why we will not stop fighting to stop the flow of weapons. We cannot sit by silently and watch the violent destruction of women and girls.
Here is a video, from our partner, Haitian Women’s Collective, from a sexual-violence survivor at the hands of armed gangs in Haiti:
Thanks to each of you for supporting our work to protect Haiti’s most vulnerable.
photo credit: Women Carrying Basket on Market Day in Hinche, by Scott Battocchi
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