Haiti: Norwegian police effort against gender-based violence – The future of UN policing?

Police reform is an important part of UN peacekeeping operations around the world. In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Norway sent a specialized police team to help train Haitian police officers under the
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The focus was on investigating and preventing sexualized and gender-based violence that had peaked in the internally displaced person camps after the earthquake.

During a nine-year presence, the Norwegian-led police team conducted extensive capacity-building of Haitian police through training and operative support. The project was described by the UN as “the future of UN policing”, and the model with specialized police teams has since been applied to other UN peacekeeping mission.

The UN ended its mission in Haiti in 2019. However, the situation in Haiti has since worsened. The president was assassinated in July, a new earthquake struck the country in August, while gang wars and kidnappings spark fear among the population.

Marianne Tøraasen has investigated the status of the initiatives by the Norwegian-led police team, two years after their departure from Haiti. Did the initiatives work, and will they last in an increasingly demanding context? With her on the panel is Jarle Bjørke, who led the police team in Haiti. Torunn Wimpelmann will be moderating.

Marianne Tøraasen
works at CMI and is a PhD candidate in Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen. She researches the Haitian justice system from a gender perspective.

Jarle Bjørke
is a senior police officer in the West Police District and led the specialized police team in Haiti from 2017 to 2018.

Torunn Wimpelmann is research director for the Gender and Rights research cluster at CMI and researches issues related to gender and politics, legal reform, and gender-based violence in Afghanistan.