Thanks to the courage of survivors and whistleblowers, Haiti’s government is taking important steps to bring high-level sports officials implicated in child abuse to justice and ban them from sport.
On July 2, Haiti’s former sports minister, Evans Lescouflair, was arrested by Interpol in Panama, where he had attempted to evade Haitian justice. Lescouflair is accused of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old student while he was a teacher. He also faces a civil lawsuit brought by several other people who have presented evidence that he sexually abused them.
“As Lescouflair finally faces trial in prison, our goal as survivors is to send a message that all children in Haiti and worldwide deserve full protection from sexual abuse at all times,” said Claude-Alix Bertrand, a child survivor of abuse as well Haiti’s Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “Sport should not be a place where powerful leaders abuse children and get away with it. We must use this case as a catalyst for lasting change to protect children in sport and beyond.”
Lescouflair was also a top official of the Haitian Football Association and president of a youth football club.
This case follows the suspension and life ban of Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart in December 2020 for sexually abusing women and girls on the Haitian national football team. After an investigation, world football’s governing body FIFA has banned Jean-Bart from playing football for life.
However, FIFA has not fired other Haitian FA officials who have been involved in covering up sexual abuse and are still working with the Haitian women’s national team, nor has it sought to have the US$1 million fine imposed on Jean-Bart collect dollars.
Whistleblowers and survivors have been threatened to prevent them from providing evidence of sexual abuse. After Jean-Bart’s appeal hearing at the Arbitration Court for Sport in April, witnesses received threats via text messages saying: “I have prepared your coffins.”
Human Rights Watch has reported new waves of violence threatening Haiti’s justice system. The Haitian authorities should take steps to ensure access to justice, protect whistleblowers and survivors, and arrest and sanction sport sex abusers and their accomplices.
The international sports organizations FIFA and the International Olympic Committee should support athlete survivors by banning child molesters from sport and maintaining their own child protection policies.
