Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.
Criminal groups have increased recruitment of children as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and the Haitian National Police, according to local and international humanitarian and human rights organizations.
"With limited options for survival, many children in Haiti are drawn into criminal groups, where they become involved in illegal activities and face serious risks," said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. "To stem the violence, the transitional government should focus on improving children's lives by providing protection, access to essential goods and services including education and legal opportunities for their rehabilitation and reintegration."
Read a text description of this video
SOUNDBITE:
The gang leaders often try to give me a gun. I always say no because that's not the life I want. If you carry a gun, you end up dead. And after that, there's no place left to go. I want freedom, so I don't own a gun, but that's not a good thing for me either.
WARNING:
This video contains descriptions of violence.
Interviewees have requested anonymity for their safety.
Viewer discretion advised.
NARRATION:
Criminal groups control around eighty percent of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince and its metropolitan area.
Two point seven million people, including around half a million children, live under their control, according to UNICEF.
NARRATION:
To survive, countless children join criminal groups, driven mainly by hunger and extreme poverty.
Many more have been recruited recently, seemingly in response to the operations of the Multinational Security Support mission and the Haitian National Police.
Once in the groups, they are forced into illegal activities and face abuses.
NARRATION:
Abandoned by the state, deprived of food, education and health care, these children find in criminal groups their only source of livelihood, shelter and income.
NARRATION:
The government should urgently address children's needs, including adequate food, shelter, protection, and education.
Authorities should also ensure children have legal opportunities for rehabilitation and holding the criminal groups accountable.
SOUNDBITE:
My situation is pretty rough. I'd even say I live poorly, eat poorly, and drink poorly. I used to live with my dad, but he passed away. My mom had nine kids, so the family split up. Some of us ended up on the streets, and others got involved with gangs. Sometimes I get a little money from the gangs I work for, and they usually give me some cash to take to my mom.
NARRATION:
Criminal groups recruit children as young as ten. They start as informants or running errands, but soon, many of them are carrying weapons, looting, extorting, and kidnapping.
NARRATION:
Criminal groups recruit children as young as 10.
They start as informants or running errands, but soon, many of them are carrying weapons, looting, extorting, and kidnapping.
After a few months, they're sent into clashes with the police or rival groups.
Children earn between one and fifteen dollars per month, plus food, which they often use to support their families.
This fourteen-year-old joined a criminal group after his father passed away.
SOUNDBITE:
My father died. I went to live with a gang. The guys taught me how to shoot and how to load a gun. They even had me commit a kidnapping.
NARRATION:
Tired of the violence, many children want to leave the groups and return to school.
But nearly one thousand schools remain closed in the most vulnerable areas, affecting over one hundred and fifty thousand children.
A few local organizations offer safe spaces where children can find some support, but much more help is needed.
Social Worker
SOUNDBITE:
We encounter all kinds of children every day. Among them are children who have been abandoned and are unaccompanied, and who have been separated from their family. Others have families that live in very precarious economic circumstances, very, very vulnerable families. They are forced to align themselves with the criminal groups to support their families. Every day the violence increases. Every day the violence increases. So, those children from the community have no other choice because it's impossible for the majority of public and private schools to operate normally.
NARRATION:
There is a lack of planning and funding to ensure these children receive protection, including through access to education, to rehabilitation and reintegration programs, or accountability for abuses against them.
NARRATION:
Girls are especially vulnerable to abuse. Members and leaders of these groups sexually exploit them.
They are also exploited for labor such as cooking and cleaning.
This sixteen-year-old who is pregnant, was a member of a criminal group.
SOUNDBITE:
I left my parents' house because my mother couldn't afford to support me, so I left.
I was involved with a gangster in Gressier.
I cooked for them, I bought clothes for them, even sandals. Whatever they needed, I bought it.
NARRATION:
A comprehensive strategy involving all relevant government entities and Haiti's stakeholders is needed to coordinate a rights-based response for children associated with criminal groups.
That strategy should also include ensuring accountability for criminal groups that recruit children and use them in criminal activities.
NARRATION:
Haiti's stakeholders should act urgently for the long-term rehabilitation of children, to strengthen communities, and to build peace.
SOUNDBITE:
I just want to go to school and get back on track to make my dreams come true so I can get off the streets.
During a visit to Port-au-Prince in July 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 58 people, including children associated with criminal groups; human rights and humanitarian workers; diplomats; and representatives of Haitian civil society and United Nations agencies. Researchers also met with transitional government officials, including the prime minister, justice and foreign affairs ministers, the transitional presidential council president, the police director, and the multinational security support mission commander. Human Rights Watch interviewed an additional 20 people remotely, and reviewed data and reports from the UN, civil society, and local organizations.
Criminal groups control nearly 80 percent of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and its metropolitan area, and are expanding into other areas. About 2.7 million people, including half a million children, live under their control, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). While no official figures are available, human rights and humanitarian organizations and government officials estimate that at least 30 percent of criminal group members are children, and Haitian government officials have estimated that several thousand criminal group members are operating in the country. Children participate in criminal activities ranging from extortion and looting to severe acts of violence, including killing and kidnapping.
Children associated with criminal groups told Human Rights Watch that hunger is the main factor that either compels them to join these groups or leads their families to allow it. The groups are often their only sources of food, shelter, and income.
A 16-year-old from Port-au-Prince said he joined the Village de Dieu group when he was 14. "Before [joining], I lived with my mother … It was really hard to get food and clothes," he said. "[A]t home, there wasn't any food. But when I was with [the group], I could eat."
Girls who are forced to join criminal groups are particularly at risk of sexual violence. "Gabriel, the gang leader of Brooklyn [in Cité Soleil], asks his henchmen to bring him a virgin girl every month. With the boss doing this, there's no way to stop others who do the same," a humanitarian worker said. Referring to the girls in the Tibwa Gang, a 16-year-old boy and member of the group said: "They rape them, not only the boss, everyone, whoever wants to, can rape them. They are in the group to serve them with sex and cooking and washing clothes."
Children in the groups are abused if they refuse to participate in criminal activities, usually with beatings and death threats. "Once, they told me to blindfold someone we were going to kidnap," a 14-year-old member of the Tibwa Gang said. "When I refused to do it, they hit me in the head with a baseball bat and said if I didn't, they would kill me."
These children also face violence from the police and rival groups as well as so-called self-defense groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti documented cases of summary executions and lynchings of children between January and June.
All children Human Rights Watch interviewed said they wanted to leave the criminal groups. "I want to leave the street and not be in criminal groups anymore," a 17-year-old Carrefour resident said. "I want to continue at school and go back to my family." But families and neighbors often reject and stigmatize children who return, human rights officials said.
The first components of the UN-authorized MSS mission led by Kenya arrived in late June to support the Haitian National Police in restoring security. Humanitarian workers and children associated with criminal groups told Human Rights Watch they hoped the government's security plan would address the specific needs of children through a protection-centered approach.
UN agencies, local organizations, and government entities such as the Institute for Social Welfare and Research have begun some initiativesto support children formerly associated with criminal groups. Yet the government lacks a comprehensive strategy and needs more resources to ensure that all children receive protection, including through access to education, legal pathways out of the groups, and access to justice. The transitional government is committed to addressing this challenge, the prime minister and other government officials said, but more international support is urgently needed.
With the school year under way, the transitional government should prioritize an education-focused strategy that protects children, ensures that security measures do not violate their rights, addresses their urgent needs, provides them a legal exit from criminal groups, and holds those responsible for abuse accountable. Funding support from the international community is essential.
"In its security response, the transitional government should prioritize protecting children associated with criminal groups by implementing specific disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs, as well as a broader approach, with increased financial support, to ensure their access to education and other essential services," Cotrino said. "Addressing children's urgent needs within a protective environment like schools can help provide psychosocial support, foster social inclusion, and prevent recruitment."
For more details, accounts from victims, and recommendations, please see below.
Impact of Criminal Violence on Children
The UN Secretary-General said in the 2024 annual report on children in armed conflict that he was concerned "by indiscriminate armed gang violence and grave violations against children" and called for a political solution, emphasizing "the importance of including child protection provisions" and "appropriate training in child protection" for the MSS mission's personnel. The previous year's report notedserious violations, including child recruitment, killing, sexual violence, and attacks on schools. Including Haiti in the report reflects the severity of apparent violations of international norms though it is not a legal conclusion that there is an armed conflict in the country.
The UN office in Haiti said that 105 children, 78 boys and 27 girls, were killed from January to mid-September 2024. More than 300,000 children are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
International and local organizations have raised the alarm about criminal groups increasingly recruiting and using children, referencing allegations that the groups are responding to the joint operations by the MSS mission and the police that began in mid-July. "The Village de Dieu group has a specialized unit dedicated to training children daily to prepare them for the arrival of the MSS," a local human rights official said. "They teach them how to set up barriers in neighborhoods, establish checkpoints, handle weapons, and position them at lookout points around the neighborhood."
Human rights and humanitarian workers said they are seeing more children in the ranks and on the front lines of clashes between criminal groups and the police and the "self-defense" groups. "Criminal groups are recruiting them more and more, using social media like TikTok and Facebook to attract them," a humanitarian official said.
More injured children are arriving at health centers and churches, many with gunshot wounds, and bodies of children killed are increasingly found in the streets, according to international and local organizations. "More children have begun coming to our church with gunshot wounds," a priest in Port-au-Prince said. "They are afraid that if they go to hospitals, they could be reported to the police, which could lead to retaliation from vigilante groups. It is devastating to see them so abandoned and unprotected."
Humanitarian Situation
Children in Haiti are in urgent need of assistance. Approximately 125,000 children face severe acute malnutrition, while nearly 3 million children - half of Haiti's children - need humanitarian aid.
Haiti's health system is on the brink of collapse. Only 24 percent of Port-au-Prince health facilities function at normal capacity. Children and their families lack access to basic social services, sanitation facilities, and psychological support.
Nearly 1,000 schools in Haiti's Western department, where the capital is located, and neighboring Artibonite were closed for much of the last school year due to looting or violent attacks, depriving an estimated 160,000 children of education and school meals. Internally displaced people have occupied many Port-au-Prince schools, with no plan in place or resources allocated to reactivate them or relocate the displaced populations, a senior UN official said.
Criminal Groups' Recruitment and Use of Children
Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 children, 12 boys and 4 girls, who live in communities controlled by criminal groups, including 6 who have recently been involved in criminal groups, as well as humanitarian and human rights workers from organizations assisting these children in four communes of the Western Department: Port-au-Prince, Carrefour, Gressier, and Cité Soleil. The interviewees live in areas controlled primarily by Tibwa Gang, Village de Dieu, Gran Ravine, Gang of Brooklyn, and Gang of Belekou. All requested that their names and identifying details not be published for security reasons.
Human Rights Watch identified children associated with criminal groups with the support of Haitian and international organizations. All participants were informed about the interview's purpose, its voluntary nature, and how the information would be used. Interviews were conducted in safe locations, taking measures to avoid retraumatization. The children and their caregivers provided oral consent.
Hunger is Forcing Children to Join Criminal Groups
All children Human Rights Watch spoke to said severe hunger was the primary reason they joined criminal groups. Most described living in extreme hardship, on the streets or in public squares, and struggling daily to meet their needs. Some still lived with their families, but their parents could not provide for them. They said the state was absent, there were no police in their neighborhoods, and they had no legal economic or social opportunities to earn a living, buy food, or access basic necessities. In the areas where the children live, criminal groups are the de facto authorities, providing "employment" and essential goods.
Mathis F., a 14-year-old orphan, lives on the street and looks after his 13-year-old brother. He said: "I joined the gang because I had nothing. I never went to school … I was out on the street, starving, with nowhere to sleep, no clothes, nothing.… The day I joined, they gave me 1,150 gourdes [US$9] and food. They took me to a house where a bunch of [gang members] lived … I was the only kid there. Two days later, five more kids came. [The gang] offered me work."
Several children said they also received shelter in occupied houses. The payment for their activities is their only means of support to meet basic needs and to contribute to their families' meager resources.
Criminal groups also use hunger to pressure children to stay in their ranks. "When I decided to leave … they said, 'You don't have food at home, so if you leave us, you'll die of hunger,'" a 16-year-old from Port-au-Prince said. "That's how [they] tried to force me to stay."
Children's Roles Within Criminal Groups
Criminal groups have a hierarchical structure, and children, mainly boys, start at the base and report to direct leaders, who assign them small tasks to test their loyalty. They receive payments between 100 and 20,000 gourdes [under $1 to $150] per month, as well as food and shelter if they need it.
Children and human rights workers interviewed said criminal groups have recruited children around age 10, with some even younger. The UN Panel of Experts on Haiti reported in late March that "the gangs of Grand Ravine, led by Ti Lapli, and 5 Segond, led by Izo, have been identified as the most active in the forceful recruitment of children."
While boys and girls both receive payment and are trained in handling weapons, loading cartridges, and managing communication devices, among other things, the tasks they are assigned are largely based on gender.
"They give me 2,000 gourdes [$15] … more or less, depending on the time I spend doing the tasks or the type of task they give me," Quentin M. said. In some groups, after three to five months and following training in weapons and ammunition, children are deployed in clashes with the police, or rival or "self-defense" groups, mostly in charge of reloading magazines and carrying weapons.
Boys are used as informants ("antennas") to provide information on police patrols or facilitate robberies, running errands such as purchasing food or clothing for leaders, and in some cases, carrying and transporting weapons and ammunition and participating in looting, extortion, and kidnapping.
Michel T., 14, left the Gran Ravine group a year ago after witnessing group members kill people from his neighborhood. "I [joined] when I was 8, because I didn't have parents and lived on the street," he said. "I usually ran errands or participated in roadblocks. There were four other kids in the group, 13 or 11 years old." Since leaving the group, he has resumed living on the streets and begs to survive.
Some boys interviewed said they had been given weapons within weeks of joining a group, including .38 caliber pistols and a Kalashnikov rifle. "They gave me a Kalashnikov with a bunch of bullets," Michel T. said. "The day they gave it to me, they loaded all the bullets in the magazine and told me to carry it on my back."
More organized criminal groups, such as Village de Dieu, have rigorous training programs for children, particularly boys, and incentives to ensure their loyalty and prevent them from defecting to rival groups, the UN office said. These groups are involved in larger-scale illegal activities including arms, human and drug trafficking, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
Girls are generally exploited for labor and assigned cooking and cleaning duties in the houses where the leaders and members of criminal groups live. During the daytime, girls are also tasked with doing errands and transporting weapons and ammunition.
"I often ran errands or cooked for the group," said Marie H., a pregnant 16-year-old girl and a former member of the Grand Ravine group. "There were lots of people in the group, including many girls aged 15-17. When I joined the group, it was easier to eat. During the clashes, I saw people wounded and many dead; I was almost hit by a bullet."
Group members and leaders also sexually exploit girls, children associated with groups and humanitarian workers said. "The leaders force them to perform sexual acts with them or their members while others watch," a humanitarian worker said. "They tell them that they are their girlfriends and that they must obey them, but in reality, they exploit them for their pleasure and consumption."
Group members also abduct girls from their homes, to recruit them into the groups, taking them to criminal leaders' homes, where they are raped and forced to work. "I took care of a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped by a gang for 15 days and gang raped every day," a humanitarian worker said. "Soon after, she found out she was pregnant. She didn't want to have the baby but the gang she belonged forced her to have it. Now they say the baby is a son of Village de Dieu."
Families living in areas controlled by criminal groups are often threatened into handing over one of their daughters to the group in exchange for protection. "More and more families are being forced to hand over their daughters to the gangs," a local human rights worker said. "They know they will be raped and treated like slaves, but they have to accept it, and in some cases they do it to avoid their daughters being raped or abused by men from other groups or from their own community."
Quentin M. said that all the money he earns "by running errands, washing cars, buying groceries, and transporting weapons for the group goes to [his] mother and two younger sisters, aged 2 years and 10 months." He said he does this to prevent them from suffering the same fate [being sexually abused] as the girls in his group.
Girls are not usually offered incentives for loyalty. Instead, they are usually let go after some time, typically when they become pregnant as a result of rape, local human rights workers said.
National and International Response
In January 2024, the UN and Haitian government entities signed a protocol on the "transfer, reception and care of children associated with armed gangs encountered during territorial security operations." While some steps have been taken toward its implementation, to be led primarily by the Haiti Institute of Social Welfare and Research and UNICEF, the institute still lacks the necessary personnel and funding to fulfill its mandate, its director said.
The protocol focuses on what to do with children once operations against criminal groups result in apprehensions of children, but prevention and protection are essential to address the reasons children are forced to join the groups and stay with them.
The transitional government has included reactivating Haiti's National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration as a key task in its roadmap to restore security. This is a positive step, but former commission members say urgent efforts are needed to strengthen it and coordinate its work with other government entities, the Haitian National Police, and the multinational security support mission. The commission, established in 2019, never had the necessary staffing, logistics, or funding to function effectively and was never integrated into the security strategy.
Similarly, while the transitional government's roadmap includes strengthening justice and the rule of law, doing so requires improving Haiti's dysfunctional juvenile justice system. The Port-au-Prince Juvenile Court has been paralyzed since 2019 due to criminal group control over the area, and the juvenile detention center, Centre de Rééducation des Mineurs en Conflit avec la Loi, intended solely to house children, is now being used for adult detainees, said the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights. The center is packed, with children and adults sharing cells in inhuman conditions, the network said.
Despite the UN system's commitment to supporting the Haitian government through the UNICEF-led Task Force on Child Protection, a stronger, better coordinated, and unified response is needed. All agencies should operate under the same legal framework - international human rights law - and prioritize the needs of children associated with criminal groups and other children in vulnerable communities controlled by criminal groups, focusing on prevention and protection.
Recommendations
Haiti needs a comprehensive strategy for children associated with criminal groups, rooted in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international human rights standards, including on juvenile justice and reintegration, which recognize children as victims.
Key steps include:
- Mobilizing additional international funding to support education and child protection efforts. As of September, UNICEF said, it had received only 30 percent of the $30.4 million needed for education and 25 percent of the $30 million it needs for the protection of nearly 600,000 children.
- Strengthening the demobilization and reintegration commission and ensuring its coordination with key security actors. It should create a comprehensive disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program, with a special focus on children and a gender-sensitive approach for sexual violence survivors who face compounding stigmas.
- Enhancing the capabilities of the Haitian National Police and the multinational security support mission to prioritize child protection. International organizations providing technical assistance should work on the basis of international human rights law, and ensure the forces receive specific training on international human rights standards, including on juvenile justice, child protection, and the use of force by law enforcement.
- Strengthening Haiti's educational system. The Ministries of Education and Social Affairs and Labor should develop a short and medium-term strategy to ensure access to basic needs and services, including education, for children associated with criminal groups and other children in vulnerable communities. This includes urgently reopening and securing schools affected by violence, ensuring adequate funding for and provision of school meals, and integrating disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs into the education strategy to ensure long-term sustainability.
- Strengthening Haiti's health and justice systems: The Public Health and Population Ministry should create a comprehensive strategy to ensure that girls who are survivors of sexual and labor exploitation have access to essential services, including health care and adequate housing. The Justice Ministry should ensure access to justice and legal assistance.
- Strengthening Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare and Research and other relevant entities, such as the Child Protection Brigade of the Police, to implement the protocol for the transfer of children from criminal groups to civilian entities, and to effectively set up the necessary and complementary programs and measures to fulfill their mandates.
- Ensuring child victims have access to justice and reparations. With international support, including from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the government should establish specialized judicial units to investigate and prosecute, serious crimes, among other abuses, the use and recruitment of children.
- Prioritizing reactivation of Haiti's juvenile justice system based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensuring that arrest, detention, and imprisonment are last resort measures, used only for the shortest appropriate duration and subject to regular review.
- Ensuring that the children's detention center provides services exclusively for children.
