House Resolution Demands 30% Women in Haiti Leadership and Condemns Widespread Sexual Violence

This House Resolution is essentially Congress formally expressing its serious concern—and laying down some strong expectations—about the crisis in Haiti, specifically focusing on the rights and safety of women and girls. The core message is clear: Haiti’s transition to stability is impossible if women are being systematically excluded from leadership and targeted by rampant gender-based violence, especially sexual violence used as a tool of conflict.

The resolution has three main targets. First, it states that the current transitional government in Haiti is failing to meet its own constitutional requirement that women fill at least 30% of all government positions. It notes that the current Transitional Presidential Council has zero women in its seven voting seats, which is a major red flag. Second, it condemns the widespread sexual violence and the near-total lack of services—like medical care, shelter, and legal accountability—for survivors. Third, it turns the lens inward, criticizing the U.S. government for recently dismantling its own institutional commitments to the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, specifically calling out the closure of the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues.

The Mandate: 30% or Bust

For anyone following international aid and governance, the most concrete demand here is the push for the 30% quota. The resolution concludes that all policies, programs, and budgets must urgently ensure that women fill this minimum quota in all decision-making roles, including those focused on security, humanitarian aid, and election planning. The text emphasizes that these women must be fully empowered and funded to exercise meaningful authority, not just window dressing. This matters because when women are at the table, policies shift to address real-world issues like safety in displacement camps and access to basic services—issues often ignored when leadership is exclusively male.

Safety in Crisis Zones

The resolution doesn't just talk about high-level politics; it gets into the grim reality on the ground. It requires policies and funding to protect women and girls from sexual violence and, crucially, to fund survivor services. This means more than just a vague promise; it calls for prioritizing medical and psychological assistance, shelter, and protection for victims. Furthermore, it explicitly addresses the safety of women and girls in displacement sites, demanding measures like adequate security, specialized units to investigate gender-based violence, and ensuring grassroots women's groups are involved in managing these sites. This is a direct response to the finding that sexual violence is currently used as a weapon in the conflict.

Accountability for U.S. Policy

Perhaps the most surprising section is the internal criticism. The resolution condemns the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense for steps they’ve taken to dismantle their own WPS commitments, calling these actions contrary to existing U.S. law (the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017). It resolves to rebuild the Office of Global Women's Issues and the WPS program within the Pentagon. This is a significant move, essentially telling these agencies that Congress believes they have weakened the U.S. policy framework designed to promote women’s participation in conflict resolution globally—and they need to fix it. For U.S. foreign aid workers, this means the rules of engagement are about to get a lot stricter regarding gender equity and safety protocols in Haiti and potentially elsewhere.