OBMICA Bulletin Editorial March 2024

At the beginning of 2024, gender-based violence and migrant women are in the spotlight in the Americas, both in the Darien Gap and in Haiti. A recent New York Times headline stated that "Sexual assaults on migrants in Panama are rising to a level rarely seen outside a war zone." In March, the Organization of American States (OAS) presented in Panama a guide to address, from a gender perspective, cases of sexual violence suffered by migrant women crossing the Darien, the dangerous jungle border with Colombia used as a migration route to reach the United States.

One of the main problems identified by the government and humanitarian organizations is that migrant women who are victims of sexual violence refuse to report it because judicial timelines would delay their journey toward North America, where they want to arrive. It has been argued that this scenario should be seen as "two paths," one "that is care" and another "that is investigation." In 2023, 676 migrants who were victims of sexual violence in the Darien received comprehensive medical care from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and in January 2024 alone that NGO recorded 120 more cases. MSF had to suspend its medical and humanitarian work in the Darien from March 4 onward by "order" of the Panamanian government, after releasing a report that evidences "extraordinary violence" against migrant women in the border jungle.

Recent developments mark a further escalation of violence in Haiti, a country going through a profound humanitarian, social, and political crisis shaped by violence perpetrated by armed groups. According to the United Nations (UN), 80% of Haiti's capital is controlled by armed groups. This has led to a significant increase in violence, including killings, sexual violence, and kidnappings, forcing the Haitian population to live in fear. Violence and wars among armed groups have left approximately 300,000 civilians homeless, and the rise in sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence has increasingly affected the lives of women and girls in the country. It is worth noting that, within the framework of the Inter-American Year of Women, the OAS and the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) held a special session on February 26 to receive Haiti's Minister for the Status of Women and Women's Rights, Marjorie Michel, during which the Organization reaffirmed its commitment to Haitian women and girls. The cases of the Darien Gap and Haiti illustrate the renewed attention that must be given to women and girls on the move in situations of extreme vulnerability.

Alongside our associate researcher Maria Cristina Fumagalli (University of Essex, United Kingdom), OBMICA participated in March 2024 in Cordoba, Argentina, in the 4th International Congress "The Caribbean in its Literatures and Cultures" organized by the Katatay Academic Network. The title of our presentation, "Women are border," comes from the program of Dona Frontera, an important binational performance held in Santo Domingo in early 2023. It highlights the multiple ways in which border, migration, and denationalization policies are currently affecting many Haitian women and Dominican women of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. There are different ways of measuring the level of democracy and respect for human rights in a country: the literary and theatrical texts that we place here in dialogue with reality in the Dominican Republic do not renounce expressing hope for a more equal future while shedding light on the difficult situation of Haitian women and Dominican women of Haitian descent. At the same time, they underline the country's shortcomings regarding human rights, and discrimination based on gender, race, color, and ethnicity.

Bridget Wooding