Deputy Secretary-General visits Haiti to show UN support after quake

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, visiting Haiti three months to the day after the devastating 12 January earthquake, has discussed with President René Préval the challenges facing the impoverished country, including education reform, law enforcement and social and political stability.

She is also surveying the efforts of the UN and the Haitian Government to protect camp residents from sexual violence and related problems.

Ms. Migiro, who arrived in the Caribbean country yesterday, spent several hours at a camp in downtown Port-au-Prince, the ruined capital, where she held informal talks with residents and formal meetings with women’s groups, who complained of sexual abuse in the camps.

She assured them of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s firm resolve to work with the Government and its partners to improve their conditions. In dispatching Ms. Migiro, Mr. Ban voiced particular concern at reports of sexual violence against women and children.

Today she is meeting with officials from the UN peacekeeping mission (known as MINUSTAH) and leaders of various humanitarian bodies working on delivering assistance and providing protection to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the quake. She will also visit the town of Léogâne, epicentre of the quake, to discuss child protection issues with Haitian officials.