The worlds of Hollywood and Westminster collided
today, as Angelina Jolie and William Hague launched a new offensive
against sexual violence at the biggest ever summit to tackle the issue.
Britain is to spend an extra £6m to help support rape victims in war
zones, the Foreign Secretary announced at the opening of a four-day
Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, at London’s ExCel
centre.
“The time has come to end the use of rape in war once and
for all, and we believe it can be done,” he declared. Hague appealed for
international support, with government delegates from 117 countries
arriving at the summit on Thursday. “There is power in numbers and if we
unite behind this cause we can create an unstoppable momentum and
consign this vile abuse to history.”
He described the rape of
people in war as “a moral issue for our generation”, and added: “We want
this summit to shatter the culture of impunity for sexual violence.”
There needs to be a “change in attitudes” so that the stigma is shifted
away from the victims “onto the perpetrators of these crimes”.
This
week’s summit marks an opportunity to “build the momentum needed to tip
the world past that point of no return, so that through hard work and
commitment over the coming years we can remove warzone rape from the
world’s arsenal of cruelty”.
Hague’s words were rewarded with applause and cheers, helped in no
small part by the beaming Hollywood actress sharing the platform with
him. There was a hushed silence as Angelina Jolie, the Special Envoy for
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, made an impassioned plea for
action, punctuated by loud cheers and roars of approval.
Justice
needs to become the “norm, not the exception, for these crimes”, said
Jolie, who added: “We need to treat this subject as a priority... and go
after the worst perpetrators... we need all armies, peacekeeping troops
and police forces to have prevention of sexual violence in conflict as
part of their training.”
The actress said: “This whole subject has been taboo for far too long. Warzone rape is a crime that thrives on silence and denial.”
Survivors suffer under a stigma which “causes feelings of shame and worthlessness”.
New
protocols aimed at ensuring rapists are brought to justice will be
announced, with governments to negotiate an international agreement on
standards for documenting and investigating sexual violence in conflict
zones.
Rapists “feel above the law, because the law rarely touches
them and society tolerates them”, said Jolie. “This evil will continue,
ruing the lives of millions of people, unless we make this Summit a
turning point. We must send a message around the world that there is no
disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence, that the shame is with
the aggressor.”
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