On 8 March, International Women’s Day, 3,000 women at Camp Mesiane, Vilaj Solidarite, Champs de Mars, Place Boyer, Bonne Fille, Mais Gate, Site Soley and others issued a statement calling for the return of Jean-Bertrand and Mildred Aristide, and for women’s demands to be central in the reconstruction of Haiti. Soon a petition was circulating – it already has more than 20,000 signatures.

We, the women of Haiti, represent more than 52% of the Haitian population. For the past two centuries we have waged a long struggle to be able to exercise our political rights against tremendous opposition.

Thanks to President Aristide in 1991, the exercise of women's political rights began to become a reality. Jean-Bertrand Aristide is the only President of Haiti who worked to officially open up space for all Haitian women to participate in the political life of the country at every level. To advocate and educate for the respect of women's rights, and to ensure that women's voices were represented at every level of government President Aristide created a Ministry of Women's Affairs.

At the same time beginning in 2001, President Aristide's administration initiated social programs that benefitted women and children, such as a national school lunch program, a national literacy program, the construction of hundreds of new public high schools and primary schools, and a public health program with health clinics in every communal section of the country.

We, women of Haiti, believe that in the wake of the void left by the earthquake of January 12, which devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and much of the southwest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide has tremendous contributions to offer towards the rebuilding of the country.

Women who have been participating in the democratic debates at the auditorium of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy each Saturday since the earthquake launch this petition and undertake to gather signatures of women throughout the country, from every department of Haiti, to ask President Barack Obama to return President Aristide and his family, without conditions, as required by Article 41 of the Haitian Constitution.

We ask women around the world who support the popular movement of Haiti to take up this petition, add their names, and to send it to President Obama and his wife Michele Obama.

This petition was launched by women meeting at the Democratic Debate at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy on May 22, 2010.