This talk provides an overview of the restavèk practice of child slavery in Haiti and reveals the dominant role of women in perpetuating the system. It explores the root causes behind the practice by contextualizing the actions of women involved in a wider framework of under-development, poverty, gender inequity and violence in its physical, structural and symbolic forms. This talk is supported by a 2-year period of ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti where a feminist methodology was employed, placing respect for culture and human dignity at the heart of the research.

Fiona de Hoog Cius is a researcher in Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre in the Department of Law and Criminology where she conducts research in human rights, gender and modern slavery.

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