Marie-Laurence Josselyn-Lassègue

Marie-Laurence Josselyn Lassègue (born 1 March 1955) is a Haitian journalist, feminist and politician.

Biography Early life and career Marie-Laurence Josselyn Lassègue was born on 1 March 1955 in Port-au-Prince. She spent her childhood in Zaire after her parents fled the dictatorship of François Duvalier. After graduating with her baccalauréat, she continued her studies in France. She earned a master's degree in literature from the University of Franche-Comté and a degree in legal science from the Université Publique du Sud in Les Cayes, Haiti. While in France, Lassègue joined the feminist movement. Following the rape of two of her friends, she became a volunteer worker with SOS femmes battues violées in Strasbourg from 1975 to 1978. At the age of 25, she co-founded the Solidarité femme women's shelter in Besançon, which ran from 1980 to 1983.

Political career Lassègue entered politics in February 1991, when she was appointed as Minister of Information and Culture of the Republic of Haiti under the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and René Préval. She held this post until August 1993. She went into exile in Washington D.C. and then Belgium following the coup d'état that overthrew President Aristide. In October 1994, she returned to visit the grave of her father, who had died while in exile, and was about to leave again when she learned that she had been unanimously elected by the Senate to represent them on the Provisional Electoral Council. She took the oath of office in December 1995 but resigned a little later for ethical reasons. She became a member of the cabinet of the first woman prime minister, Claudette Werleigh, in 1995, and a member of the cabinet of President Réné Préval from 1996 to 2000.

In 2006, Lassègue became Minister for the Status and Rights of Women, replacing outgoing Minister Adeline Magloire Chancy. In 2012, she oversaw the Haitian parliament's ratification of a bill aimed at making fathers responsible for delinquency.