William Hague recruits Angelina Jolie in campaign against rape in warzones
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- Published on Friday, 23 November 2012 05:31
- Written by Telegraph
Angelina Jolie has flown into the UK to support William Hague’s difficult mission to tackle sexual violence and rape in wazones, reports Cathy Newman. Wilton Park is a grand pile in Sussex owned by the Foreign Office. It was used in the war to interrogate German prisoners of war. However, today it's the mandarins who are being held captive - or at least captivated - by a woman of German descent: none other than the Hollywood A-lister Angelina Jolie.If it sounds like a film plot, it might as well be. Because Ms Jolie's recent film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, dealt with the traumatic subject of sexual violence in warzones, and that's why she's jetted in today - to support the Government's global campaign on the issue. William Hague joked to the assembled company of global experts attending a special conference on the issue that she was "checking up on whether we have lived up to our promises".As a statement of good intent, the Foreign Secretary is about to deploy a 70-strong team of police, lawyers, psychologists, doctors and forensic experts to gather evidence of rape and other sexual crimes committed in warzones. The Foreign Office has also pledged £1m to help UN efforts to secure justice for victims.There's an urgency about all this. As I've blogged before, 50,000 women were raped in Bosnia it's thought, and possibly as many as 400,000 in Rwanda. But it's also happening right now to thousands of women in Syria.As Ms Jolie said today, sex ual violence as a weapon of war "has almost become a rule rather than an exception". What's also important to remember is that one of the most senior men in the Cabinet is taking this on. There are those who say it's difficult for a man to talk about things like rape. But if the rape of grandmothers, mothers, children - and yes men too - is something the men round the cabinet table leave to their (by and large) more junior, female colleagues the risk is the issue becomes marginalised. Even more so because of the dearth of women in the upper echelons of Government – something not lost on Mr Hague.There may be those who are cynical about the Ms Jolie’s involvement. But by securing the backing of a global star, who let's not forget is also a UN envoy, the Foreign Office has been able to publicise an atrocity - raising awareness about the scale of the problem and helping remove some of the stigma surrounding it.
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