Defending Women’s Rights in Haiti

ENFOFANM, a feminist organization in Haiti, was set up in 1987, by Clorinde Zephir. It is the only documentation centre in the country, which specializes in feminist literature and current affairs on women. Its monthly newsletter, Ayiti Fanm, which is written in Creole, has been published since 1991. There is also a radio broadcast throughout the country.

The organization is affiliated to several regional and international bodies such as CAFRA, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Equality Now and Women in Development Europe (WIDE), to name a few.

As a movement among Haitian women, ENFOFANM has been actively involved in the struggle for change in the condition of women. It specializes in four key area:

• Documentation and Archives
• Communication
• Defense of Women’s Rights and Advocacy
• Training.

Some of its most important activities to date:

• Member, Ad Hoc Committee against Violence, first national meeting to fight violence against women, 1993

• Participant, International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo , 1994

• Participant, Fourth World Conference of Women, Beijing, 1995

• Campaign for the ratification of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women

• Co-Director of the Haitian-Dominican Colloquium against Violence to Women, 1998