A father to a father

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Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie delivered a powerful speech at the first ever End Sexual
Violence in Conflict summit in London.
Joined by co-chair William Hague, the actress and United Nations
Special Envoy opened the four-day summit with powerful words that
urged the global community to take action.
THIS is Angelina Jolie’s incredible speech in full…
‘It is a myth that rape is an inevitable part of conflict. There is nothing
inevitable about it.
It is a weapon of war aimed at civilians.
It has nothing to do with sex, everything to do with power.
It is done to torture and to humiliate innocent people, and often very
young children.
I have met survivors from Afghanistan to Somalia and they are just like
us, with one crucial difference.
We live in safe countries with doctors we can go to when we’re hurt,
police we can turn to when we’re wronged, and institutions that protect
us.
They live in refugee camps or bombed out streets in areas where there is
no law, no protection, and not even the hope of justice.
They struggle to keep their children safe and if they admit to being raped,
they are likely to face more violence and social rejection.
Other survivors live in countries where war is over, but the peace has
brought no justice. And as an international community, we are
responsible for that.
We need to shatter that culture of impunity and make justice the norm,
not the exception, for these crimes.
We need political will replicated across the world and we need to treat
this subject as a priority.
We need to see real commitment to go after the worst perpetrators, to
fund proper protection for vulnerable people and to step in and help the
worst affected countries.
We need all armies, peacekeeping troops and police forces to have the
prevention of sexual violence in conflict as part of their training.
More than 100 countries will be represented at the summit, and we will
be asking them to take these measures. But we really do need your help.
This whole subject has been taboo for far too long.
War zone rape is a crime that thrives on silence and denial.
This stigma harms survivors and it causes feeling of shame and
worthlessness.
It feeds ignorance, such as the notion that rape has anything to do with
normal sexual impulses. But most of all, it allows the rapist to get away
with it.
They feel above the law because the law rarely touches them and society
tolerates them.
As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ”The destiny of human rights is in the
hands of all of our citizens and all our communities.”
And this evil will continue to ruin the lives of millions of people unless
we make this summit a turning point – and we can.
We must send a message across the world that there is no disgrace in
being a survivor of sexual violence; that the shame is on the aggressor.
We must work together in new and unprecedented ways across borders
and religions, bringing governments and people together and tackling the
problem from every possible angle.
And by doing this we can end the use of rape and sexual violence as a
weapon of war once and for all. We really can do it.
So, thank you so much for joining us today, for joining us in this fight,
and I wish us all a very productive summit.’
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