Haiti Protection Analysis Update

Haiti has been experiencing a deepening political, security, and humanitarian crisis since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, with escalating gang-related violence and civil unrest, particularly in the West, Artibonite, and Centre departments. Weak rule of law institutions, constrained resources, and endemic corruption hinder the State’s ability to protect and promote human rights. Armed violence exacerbates pre-existing humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities stemming from multiple socio-economic inequalities and frequent natural disasters.

The current context exposes the population to serious protection risks, with people caught between multiple armed actors (gangs, self-defense groups, and security forces). From 1 January until 31 August 2025, the Human Rights Service (HRS) of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 4,006 killings and 1,617 injuries. These casualties occurred as a result of gang attacks, security forces’ operations against gangs, as well as through acts of “popular justice” carried out by self-defense groups and unorganized members of the population. Gangs use kidnapping as a systematic tactic for extortion. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) remains alarmingly high yet underreported, with 6,450 incidents primarily targeting women and girls, reported from January to the end of August 2025. Children are also affected by violence, face family separation, and are at risk of trafficking, including recruitment by armed gangs, where they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Additionally, restrictions on freedom of movement further expose people to violence and human rights violations and abuses, create significant barriers to basic services (including food, safe drinking water, healthcare and education), affect transportation of goods, and have resulted in shrinking humanitarian space that impedes the delivery of life-saving activities.

Since 2022, nearly 1.3 million people have been forcibly displaced within the country. Many have sought shelter within overstretched and strained host communities, while others reside in unsafe, overcrowded displacement sites with limited basic services. The Haitian social fabric has been deeply affected, families are separated, education and employment disrupted, and social protection further constrained. Simultaneously, Haitians who had left the country in pursuit of safety and economic opportunities, including in the Dominican Republic, are at risk of deportation, often without basic safeguards or respect for due process.

As part of the humanitarian reset, in Haiti, there is an opportunity to strengthen the protection approach by improving efficiency and better aligning resources with identified risks. Protection goes beyond delivering assistance or responding to incidents; it fundamentally requires efforts to reduce risks and build resilience. Investing in prevention, risk mitigation, and community-based protection strategies is essential to promoting individual agency and strengthening social cohesion.

The protection risks requiring immediate attention in the period covered by this analysis are:

1. Killings, injuries, and attacks on infrastructures

2. Kidnapping, captivity and disappearance

3. Sexual and gender-based violence

4. Trafficking and exploitation of children through gang recruitment

5. Impediments and restrictions on freedom of movement and forced displacement