Amnesty International has raised serious concerns over reports that Sri Lanka is planning to deploy more than 1,000 military and police personnel to Haiti as part of the newly established international Gang Suppression Force (GSF). The human rights organization has called attention to longstanding and unresolved allegations of widespread sexual abuse of children committed by United Nations peacekeepers, warning that deploying Sri Lankan forces without first addressing these deeply troubling accusations could place vulnerable Haitian civilians at further risk.
What Is the Gang Suppression Force in Haiti?
Haiti has been engulfed in a devastating security crisis for several years, with armed gangs effectively controlling large portions of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding regions. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, disrupted access to food, water, and healthcare, and left the country's fragile institutions struggling to maintain any meaningful order. In response to escalating instability, the international community has moved to establish the Gang Suppression Force, a multinational security initiative designed to support Haitian national police and restore a degree of stability to the embattled Caribbean nation.
Sri Lanka's proposed contribution of over 1,000 military and police personnel would make it one of the largest single-country contributors to the force. While the intention behind such deployments is to bolster security and protect civilians, Amnesty International has made clear that good intentions alone are not sufficient when serious accountability questions remain unanswered.
Amnesty International's Core Concerns
Renzo Pomi, Amnesty International's Representative at the United Nations in New York, issued a formal statement expressing the organization's deep reservations about the proposed deployment. At the heart of Amnesty International's concerns are serious and unresolved allegations of widespread sexual abuse of children by Sri Lankan peacekeepers during previous United Nations missions. These allegations, which have never been fully and transparently investigated or adjudicated, cast a significant shadow over any new deployment of Sri Lankan forces to a country already facing extreme vulnerability.
Amnesty International's position is not simply one of opposition to international peacekeeping efforts. Rather, the organization is calling for accountability and due diligence before personnel are deployed to a context as fragile and high-risk as Haiti. When a country's military or police forces carry unresolved allegations of grave human rights violations, deploying those same forces into environments populated by some of the world's most vulnerable people raises profound ethical and legal questions.
A History of Peacekeeper Abuse Allegations
The issue of sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeepers is not new, nor is it limited to Sri Lanka. The United Nations has faced persistent criticism over decades for failing to adequately prevent, investigate, and punish such misconduct among troop-contributing countries. Sri Lankan peacekeepers, however, have faced specific and documented allegations from previous deployments, particularly in Haiti itself, where UN peacekeeping missions operated for many years following the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Reports emerged in the years following that mission of Sri Lankan peacekeepers engaging in sexual exploitation of Haitian minors, with some cases allegedly involving the exchange of food or money for sexual acts with children. These revelations were deeply damaging not only to Sri Lanka's international reputation but also to the broader credibility of UN-mandated peacekeeping operations. Critics argued at the time, and continue to argue today, that accountability mechanisms were insufficient and that perpetrators were shielded from meaningful justice.
Haiti's Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis
The context into which these forces would be deployed cannot be overstated in its severity. Haiti currently faces one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the Western Hemisphere. Gang violence has surged dramatically since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, with criminal networks now controlling an estimated 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. Sexual violence is being used systematically as a weapon by gang members, and children are among the most frequent targets of exploitation and abuse.
Deploying forces with unaddressed histories of sexual misconduct into this environment, Amnesty International argues, risks compounding existing harms rather than alleviating them. The organization has urged both the Sri Lankan government and the international bodies overseeing the GSF to ensure rigorous vetting processes, transparent accountability frameworks, and robust mechanisms for reporting and responding to any misconduct that may occur during the deployment.
Calls for Accountability Before Deployment
Amnesty International is calling on Sri Lankan authorities to conduct thorough and transparent investigations into all outstanding allegations before any personnel are cleared for international deployment. The organization is also urging the broader international community to establish clear and enforceable standards of conduct for all forces participating in the Gang Suppression Force, along with independent oversight mechanisms that operate free from political interference.
The situation in Haiti demands urgent and effective international support. However, as Amnesty International has made powerfully clear, the protection of Haitian civilians — particularly children — must remain the central priority. Accountability is not a bureaucratic obstacle to effective peacekeeping. It is the very foundation upon which legitimate and trustworthy international security operations must be built.