Grace Initiative Global and Yale Divinity School: UN CSW 70 Side Event:

Restorative Justice Strategies for Haitian Women Internally Displaced

17 March 2026 at the Scandinavian House, New York,

Restorative Justice Strategies for Haitian Women Internally Displaced

As international and regional stakeholders intensify efforts to restore stability in Haiti, including the deployment of security operations to address armed violence, displacement patterns remain fluid and deeply gendered. Experience from comparable stabilization contexts indicates that enforcement measures—while necessary—can coincide with increased civilian displacement, often outpacing the development of adequate protection, justice, and accountability mechanisms.

This discussion examines restorative justice strategies as a complementary component of stabilization and humanitarian responses. It explores how survivor-centered, non-carceral approaches can mitigate harm, strengthen accountability, and preserve dignity for internally displaced women, particularly where formal judicial institutions are inaccessible, overwhelmed, or non-operational. Restorative justice is not proposed as a substitute for criminal accountability, but as a pragmatic and protective mechanism that can operate alongside security and humanitarian efforts to reduce cycles of violence and vulnerability. Such approaches are context-specific and rooted in social and historical narratives, shaped by the needs and leadership of affected communities.

Within this framework, restorative justice initiatives offer opportunities for healing, empowerment, and community trust-building among Haiti’s internally displaced populations, currently estimated at over one million persons. While international security measures are essential to address urgent threats, durable peace requires systems that uphold dignity, rebuild relationships, and reinforce community-based protection mechanisms.

CSW 70 underscores justice as central to achieving gender equality by addressing exclusion, violence, and unequal access to protection and resources. In alignment with this priority, restorative justice approaches contribute by: Promoting trauma-informed recovery; Restoring dignity and leadership for survivors; Strengthening local accountability and protection systems;
and, Supporting economic and social reintegration for sustainable recovery.

This side event will explore practical strategies for integrating security, justice, and protection responses in ways that center and safeguard internally displaced Haitian women.