BRUSSELS: Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency met with the US-led Alliance, the North Atlantic Council in Brussels and urged them to work towards stopping the use of sexual violence and crimes as a weapon of war on Wednesday.
The Hollywood star who visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan earlier this week also met with NATO military commanders. Jolie told a news conference at NATO headquarters, “Violence against women and children, particularly sexual violence, is an increasing feature of conflict,”
“This is rape used as a weapon to achieve military or political goals. It affects men and boys as well as women and girls,” Jolie said. She further added that she had met with victims of sexual violence and was determined to help them find justice and be a voice for them.
According to Jolie, a good way of tackling this issue would be NATO providing other militaries higher standards through training programmes which focus on promoting women’s roles in the military. She then pointed to the situation of the Rohingya refugees of Myanmar and expressed her concern regarding their plight, “I‘m very concerned about the Rohingya, I‘m very angry at the response … I‘m very concerned about the stories of the 10-year old girls being raped.”
“We should all hang our head on how little we have been able to do,” she said.
NATO has agreed to help report on sexual violence in war and not only help bring justice to the victims but to actively challenge the idea that rape is an acceptable act of violence in any conflict.
