Gangs and Security in Haiti

April 24, 2025 - 3:00 pm

Room D-301
Baruch College, CUNY

(135 E. 22nd St at the corner of Lexington & 22nd)

Please note: This event will take place at Baruch College, not at The Graduate Center.

Haiti is experiencing a deepening security crisis as gang alliances expand their control over Port-au-Prince and other regions of the country. Today, Haiti faces some of the highest homicide and kidnapping rates in the hemisphere. Gang violence has displaced more than a million people—nearly 10 percent of the national population.

In response, the United Nations launched a multinational security support mission in 2023, led by Kenya, though its impact has so far been limited. Over the past year, criminal groups have orchestrated mass prison escapes and intermittently disrupted air travel into the capital. Some gang leaders are now discussing plans to reorganize as a political party, signaling ambitions for more formal control over the political system.

This event brings together three leading experts on gangs and violence in Haiti. Together, they will examine the current security situation, explore its historical and political roots, assess its impact on Haitian society and governance, and consider possible policy responses at both the domestic and international levels.

 

Djems Olivier (Ph.D., University of Paris 8, France) is a Lecturer at the University State of Haiti (UEH). His research explores underexamined topics such as the role of territorial gangs in shaping economic and social activity in marginalized neighborhoods in Haiti. His dissertation, Territoires de la violence, territoires des ONG: Quelle (in)cohérence?, offers critical insight into the dynamics between armed gangs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), examining how NGOs operate in gang-controlled neighborhoods and the modalities of their coexistence. He contributed the chapter “Les ONG et les institutions internationales” to Haïti entre permanences et ruptures: une géographie du territoire, edited by André Calmont and Pierre Jorès Mérat. Olivier is the author of several academic articles, including “Haiti’s Foreign Intervention Quagmire” (2023) and “The Political Anatomy of Haiti’s Armed Gangs” (2021). 

Sophie Rutenbar is a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC) and a Non-Resident Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. Her work focuses on Haiti’s socio-political landscape, examining how economic and political elites shape the country’s trajectory and the influence of external actors, particularly UN peace operations, on these dynamics. From 2019 to 2023, Rutenbar served as Strategic Planner in the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General at the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). She previously worked on the Policy Planning Team in the UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO), contributing to peacekeeping and peace and security reform processes (2017–2019), and served as the inaugural U.S.-sponsored Associate Expert in the UN Secretariat (2013–2015). Before joining the UN, Rutenbar worked with USAID’s Sudan and South Sudan Transition and Conflict Mitigation Program. She has also worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Zambia, and Thailand.

Romain Le Cour Grandmaison (Ph.D., Sorbonne University, France) is the Head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). His work focuses on criminal organizations, public security, and the relationship between the state and violence in Mexico and Central America. He has been a visiting fellow at Columbia University, UC San Diego (USMEX Center), and Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Le Cour Grandmaison is co-founder of the think tank Noria Research and has worked as a consultant and researcher for various NGOs and UN agencies, including UNODC. He previously served as Program Officer for Public Security and Violence Reduction at México Evalúa. Since 2013, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Mexico and has published academic articles, policy papers, and op-eds in international media. He co-edited a book published by Karthala in 2019.

Moderator:Desmond Arias, Bildner Center/Graduate Center, CUNY

Welcoming Remarks: Sherry Ryan, Dean of the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College

Co-sponsored by the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute and the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, CUNY

TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu