IV 
119TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1018 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that protecting and 
advancing the rights of women and girls in the Republic of Haiti is 
critical to the success of Haiti’s transition from crisis and its future 
stability, condemning the failure to center women’s leadership and dis-
tinct needs to date, and calling for urgent measures to secure all human 
rights of women and girls in Haiti. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 22, 2026 
Ms. CLARKE of New York (for herself, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mrs. 
CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. WATERS, Ms. PLASKETT, Ms. WILSON of 
Florida, Mr. FROST, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. NORTON, Mr. BELL, 
Mr. CARSON, Ms. CROCKETT, Mrs. MCIVER, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, 
Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. MCBRIDE, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. SE-
WELL, Mr. MFUME, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. SIMON, Mrs. RAMI-
REZ, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. THANEDAR, 
Mr. HORSFORD, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
CLEAVER, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. MANNION, 
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Ms. KELLY of Illi-
nois, Mr. SOTO, Ms. BROWN, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. TORRES of New York, 
Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. BISHOP, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Mr. FIGURES, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, and Ms. MENG) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 
Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls 
in the Republic of Haiti is critical to the success of 
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•HRES 1018 IH 
Haiti’s transition from crisis and its future stability, 
condemning the failure to center women’s leadership and 
distinct needs to date, and calling for urgent measures 
to secure all human rights of women and girls in Haiti. 
Whereas women and girls in Haiti are subjected to systematic 
discrimination across all areas of public and private life 
and endemic gender-based violence, and have been sys-
tematically excluded from political and other leadership 
roles such that Haiti was nearly last in the world for 
women’s participation in Parliament after its last elec-
tions; 
Whereas women and girls are distinctly affected by the cur-
rent deteriorating security, governance, and humanitarian 
crisis in Haiti, and are being subjected to widespread sex-
ual and other forms of gender-based violence, including 
collective rape and sexual exploitation that is being delib-
erately wielded as a tool of conflict to control and ter-
rorize communities; 
Whereas the pervasive threat of gender-based violence has led 
to a significant reduction in women’s and girls’ freedom 
of movement, civic participation, and economic activity, 
further increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and 
abuse, especially in situations of displacement; 
Whereas, despite the critical need for survivor support serv-
ices like emergency medical care, shelter, and judicial re-
course, access to such services remains severely limited, 
impeded, and in some areas, nonexistent, and impunity 
for gender-based violence remains the norm; 
Whereas the Constitution of Haiti expressly requires ‘‘the eq-
uity of gender’’, provides that at least 30 percent of all 
positions and offices ‘‘at all levels of national life, notably 
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in the public services’’ and in elections be reserved for 
women, and incorporates as national law all rights recog-
nized by the United Nations Convention on the Elimi-
nation of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 
signed at New York, December 18, 1979, and the Inter- 
American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, 
and Eradication of Violence against Women, done at 
Belem do Para, June 9, 1994; 
Whereas Haiti’s transitional government has failed to include 
women and girls on an equal basis in leadership and deci-
sion-making positions or to meet the 30-percent constitu-
tional minimum requirement, most egregiously exempli-
fied by the fact that no women hold any of the 7 voting 
seats on the Transitional Presidential Council; 
Whereas civil society organizations in Haiti have documented 
and denounced the lack of adequate government protec-
tions, services, and responses to the distinct security, eco-
nomic, and human rights needs of Haitian women and 
girls, as well as the transitional government’s failure to 
sufficiently include women in decision making, in viola-
tion of their rights; 
Whereas the United States Government voted into effect a 
series of United Nations Security Council resolutions that 
collectively established the Women, Peace, and Security 
(in this preamble referred to as ‘‘WPS’’) Agenda, which 
urges member states to increase women’s representation 
in institutions and mechanisms for preventing, miti-
gating, and resolving conflict and to center the rights of 
women and girls, and further explicitly recognizes that 
weaponized gender-based violence exacerbates conflict 
and represents a threat to international peace and secu-
rity; 
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•HRES 1018 IH 
Whereas centering women’s leadership and specific needs is 
thus an established best practice for conflict-affected 
transitions, reflecting the empirical recognition that when 
women are included, outcomes are more effective and 
sustainable; 
Whereas the United States Government recognized the WPS 
Agenda as ‘‘both a moral and strategic imperative of 
U.S. foreign policy and national security’’ and became 
the first country to adopt a comprehensive law on WPS 
when Congress passed and President Donald Trump 
signed into law the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 
2017 (Public Law 115–68); 
Whereas that Act requires policies that promote and encour-
age partner governments to ensure the meaningful par-
ticipation of women in conflict resolution, along with 
their physical safety, economic security, and dignity, rec-
ognizing explicitly that women’s engagement in resolving 
conflict is critical to long-term stability and democracy; 
Whereas the 2019 United States Strategy on Women, Peace, 
and Security, effectuated by President Donald Trump, 
requires measures to support women’s participation in 
decision making related to crises and to promote the pro-
tection of women’s and girls’ human rights, access to aid, 
and safety from violence, abuse, and exploitation around 
the world; 
Whereas the international partners working with the transi-
tional government of Haiti to respond to its crisis have 
largely failed to center the principles of the WPS Agenda, 
providing limited support to addressing sexual violence 
and paying little notice to other rights and obligations, 
including especially women’s leadership; 
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•HRES 1018 IH 
Whereas civil society in Haiti has with global support 
launched a Policy Framework for an Effective and Equi-
table Transition, which outlines for the transitional gov-
ernment and its international partners the applicable 
legal obligations and best practices, such as the WPS 
Agenda, and sets out concrete recommendations with the 
aim of supporting a more equitable and thus more effec-
tive transition from crisis; and 
Whereas the failure to center women’s leadership and women- 
specific needs and protections in Haiti’s transition threat-
ens the effectiveness of the transition and the long- term 
security, democracy, and socioeconomic development of 
Haiti: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the systematic sexual violence 
and other gender-based harms directed at women 
and girls in Haiti and the accompanying lack of pro-
tection, services, and accountability, which constitute 
breaches of Haiti’s legal obligations under Haitian 
and international law; 
(2) condemns the persistent exclusion and 
marginalization of women in Haiti’s transitional gov-
ernment and in other leadership and decision-mak-
ing positions, especially with respect to restoring se-
curity, management of displacement sites, and deliv-
ery of humanitarian relief, which constitute breaches 
of Haiti’s legal obligations under Haitian and inter-
national law; 
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(3) condemns the failure of Haiti’s inter-
national partners to center the distinct needs of 
women and girls in policies, programs, and efforts to 
provide good offices or otherwise support Haiti’s 
transitional government; 
(4) condemns the unilateral steps undertaken 
by the Department of State and the Department of 
Defense to dismantle their institutional commit-
ments to Women, Peace, and Security, including by 
closing the Office of Global Women’s Issues in the 
proposed reorganization of the Department of State 
and ending the Women, Peace, and Security pro-
gram at the Department of Defense, and finds those 
actions to be contrary to legislation duly enacted by 
Congress, including the Women, Peace, and Security 
Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–68); 
(5) finds that the failure to respect the legal re-
quirements to include women’s leadership and ad-
dress women’s specific needs endangers all efforts to 
restore security and stable democratic governance in 
Haiti; 
(6) finds that confronting widespread gender- 
based violence against women and girls in Haiti is 
indispensable for stabilizing and rebuilding Haiti 
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•HRES 1018 IH 
and must be a central tenet of all security and ac-
countability policies; 
(7) finds that failure to specifically consider 
and endeavor to dismantle historical and structural 
inequalities and discrimination risks entrenching or 
worsening such practices and their harmful con-
sequences; 
(8) concludes that policies, programs, and cor-
responding budgetary allocations must be urgently 
implemented so as to— 
(A) ensure that, in conformity with the 
Constitution of Haiti, women fill at minimum 
30 percent of all government, leadership, and 
decision-making positions, including especially 
top ministerial, directorate, and commission po-
sitions that are concerned with restoring secu-
rity, delivering humanitarian assistance, and 
planning for any elections; 
(B) ensure that women serving in any such 
positions are fully and equally empowered and 
funded so as to be able to exercise meaningful 
and effective authority associated with their po-
sitions; 
(C) prioritize and fund policies and pro-
grams concerned with protecting women and 
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girls in Haiti from sexual and other forms of 
gender-based violence; 
(D) prioritize and fund services for sur-
vivors of sexual and other forms of gender- 
based violence, especially medical and psycho-
logical assistance, shelter, and protection; 
(E) prioritize and fund investigations and 
prosecutions of sexual violence and other forms 
of gender-based harms, including the preserva-
tion of evidence and protection for survivors 
and witnesses; 
(F) take all necessary steps to ensure the 
safety of women and girls in displacement sites, 
including measures consistent with Inter-Amer-
ican Commission on Human Rights Pre-
cautionary Measures MC 340/1, namely— 
(i) to provide medical and psycho-
logical care to survivors of gender-based vi-
olence; 
(ii) to adequately secure displacement 
sites; 
(iii) to ensure public officials respond 
adequately to incidents of gender-based vi-
olence; 
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