Now almost half of the gang members are children who have taken de facto control over large parts of the country, vanessa frazier told reporters at UN headquarters after his first fact-finding mission to the Caribbean island nation.
About 18,000 schools were reported destroyed, damaged or disabled.
“Today, children in Haiti are facing a level of violence that no child, anywhere, should ever have to endure,” he said.
In a country where gang violence has caused widespread chaos for years, Ms. Frazier said that growing up in Haiti means “Daily struggle to survive, living in constant fear and being subject to threats, violence, family separation, displacement and trauma. “Because gangs take advantage of the weakness of these children.”
In 2025 alone, Recruitment and use of children nearly tripled.
Also, murders, maimings and kidnappings of children almost doubled Sexual violence is also occurring on a large scale and is increasingly being used as a deliberate tactic To create fear and punish communities.
children are suffering
“The Haitian government and its partners reassure me that the protection of children is at the center of their agenda,” she said.
A key development is the implementation of the handover protocol signed with the United Nations in 2024 to facilitate the transfer of children associated with gangs to child protection services.
International juvenile justice standards apply to children who have committed serious crimes, Ms. Frazier said, with detention only as a last resort.
“I stressed this in all my meetings Children exposed during security operations should first and foremost be treated as victims,” Ms. Frazier said. “They should be swiftly handed over to child protection services for care, protection and reintegration.”
However, he warned that this principle was not always being followed by authorities, and called for change.
At an overcrowded detention facility called CERMICOL in Port-au-Prince, Ms. Frazier said 80 children have been held for several years.Devastating conditions, without any charges, including many suspected of gang affiliation. no one has ever been seen by a judge. Most do not get to meet their families. They are on their own.”
‘window of opportunity’
Before launch on June 1st security councilIn the -mandated Gang Suppression Force (GSF) operation, Ms Frazier called on authorities to stop abuses and release captured children “in accordance with handover protocols”.
“I want to emphasize that there is an opportunity now to do the right thing by deploying the GSF. Security and child protection cannot be separated,” he said.
Efforts focusing on long-term reintegration outcomes for children are also being stepped up, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes, where a facility is being renovated to receive 600 children separated from gangs.
massive humanitarian crisis
The widespread humanitarian and security crisis is exacerbating the suffering of children. Many live in areas completely controlled by armed gangs, cut off from schools, health care and basic security services.
They told me they only want one thing: to go to school, play, learn and just be kids again.
“I was told that 18,000 schools were either destroyed, damaged or defunct because of gangs,” he said, creating conditions that alienate children and dramatically increase their vulnerability to recruitment, exploitation and abuse.
Military use of schools and hospitals also increased rapidlyHighlights the rapidly deteriorating security environment.
“No child should have to grow up in these circumstances,” Ms Frazier said.
Hope, despite the ‘uninterrupted cycle of violence’
“I met young children and adolescents who were already in unsafe situations within their own homes and had gone through an uninterrupted cycle of violence inside and outside their homes,” Ms. Frazier said.
However, Ms. Frazier also said that, while heartbreaking, the children’s testimony was full of hope.
“They told me they only want one thing: to go to school, play, learn and just be kids again.. Even in the darkest moments, Haitian children continue to show extraordinary resilience. They deserve more than just survival – they deserve a chance to grow, dream, and recapture their childhood.
She said she was “deeply impressed by the resilience and courage of Haiti’s youngest generation.”
