Angelina Jolie urged the United Nations Security Council on Monday to punish those who commit violent sexual crimes during conflict and to protect the victims of such violence.
“Hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes,” said Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the UN high commissioner for refugees, reports Herald Sun.
The actress pointed out that the Security Council has seen 67 years of wars and conflicts since its creation, “but the world has yet to take up warzone rape as a serious priority.”
Jolie explicitly described some of the crimes she hopes the UN will pass a resolution to prevent and prosecute.
“Young girls raped and impregnated before their bodies are able to carry a child, causing fistula,” Jolie said, according to Newsday. Boys held at gunpoint and forced to sexually assault their mothers and sisters. Women raped with bottles, wood branches and knives to cause as much damage as possible.”
“If the…council sets rape and sexual violence in conflict as a priority it will become one and progress will be made. If you do not, this horror will continue,” Jolie said.
Jolie, a dedicated humanitarian, told the story of a an assault victim she met in Jordan.
“She knew that if she spoke out against the crimes against her, she would be attacked and possibly killed. Rape is a tool of war. It is an act of aggression and a crime against humanity.”
Her clear knowledge of the issue was further demonstrated in her explanation of the effects of warzone sexual assault on the world’s ability to find peace.
“Rape as a weapon of war is an assault on security and a world in which these crimes happen is one in which there is not and never will be peace,” she told the council. “Addressing war zone sexual violence is, therefore, your responsibility, as well as the duty of governments in countries affected by it.”
British Foreign Secretary backed up Jolie’s efforts, saying that “in conflicts in nearly every corner of the globe, rape is used systematically and ruthlessly, in the almost certain knowledge that there will be no consequences for the perpetrators.”
Jolie’s pleas did not go unanswered: the council soon adopted a resolution requiring complete and immediate cessation of all sexual violence by all parties to armed conflict. The resolution further calls for improved monitoring of sexual violence in warzones and urged the council and donors to aid victims of such crimes.
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