A top United Nations official delivered a stark warning to the Security Council on Monday, saying children in Haiti are being held behind bars for years at a time — never once brought before a judge.
Vanessa Frazier, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, told the council that some children reported being detained for as long as eight years without a judicial appearance. Many of those children are being held in overcrowded cells that were designed for minors but are largely occupied by adult detainees.
“This is not acceptable,” Frazier said. “The situation of children in Haiti is amongst the most alarming anywhere in the world.”
Frazier urged that children connected to armed gangs be treated primarily as victims, and called for a comprehensive review to release detained children along with concrete steps to help them reintegrate into their communities.
According to the UN, 2,088 grave violations against children were confirmed last year in Haiti. Those violations included killings, serious injuries, abductions, forced recruitment by gangs, and sexual violence. The deaths and injuries were attributed mainly to armed gangs, Haitian police, crossfire between the two sides, and drone strikes.
U.S. Representative to the UN Mike Waltz said the United States would pursue efforts to stop gang members from using social media platforms — including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram — to recruit children into their ranks.
Waltz also urged other nations to assist Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Ivory Coast with airlifts to accelerate troop deployments to the UN-backed security force operating in Haiti. That force is made up primarily of soldiers from Chad and Sri Lanka, following Kenya’s withdrawal from the mission.
Monica Juma, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, offered a grim assessment of the gang threat during the council meeting. “Haiti’s armed gangs are no longer simply seeking to capture territory,” she said. “They are seeking to capture the systems of governance and the economic lifelines on which communities and institutions depend.”
