Last week, Angelina Jolie was in Jordan, on the border, to meet with Syrian refugees who are fleeing their civil war in droves. She was in Jordan specifically for World Refugee Day (June 20th), and she makes an effort to attend events or visit refugee camps every year for the international day of awareness and advocacy. Here’s what I didn’t know though – Angelina is joining her UNHCR work with her recent advocacy for victims of rape and sexual abuse around the world. Angelina has been doing more work on rape and sex abuse in the past year, and she’s already worked on an initiative with the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, and she’s met with current Secretary of State John Kerry. And just yesterday, Angelina gave testimony and a personal plea to the UN Security Council:

As a leading Hollywood actress, Angelina Jolie can raise publicity and awareness with the snap of her fingers. And after recently going public about her double mastectomy – and encouraging women across the world to get regular check ups – Jolie put another worthy matter before the world stage on Monday in her capacity as a U.N ambassador.

The 38-year-old actress made her debut before the U.N.’s most powerful body as a special envoy for refugees – and urged the world’s nations to make the fight against rape in war a top priority. She told the Security Council that ‘hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes’.

Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said the Security Council has witnessed 67 years of wars and conflict since it was established ‘but the world has yet to take up warzone rape as a serious priority.’

‘You set the bar,’ she told the council. ‘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.’

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who presided over the meeting, stressed 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.’

Soon after Jolie spoke, the council adopted a legally-binding resolution demanding the complete and immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence by all parties to armed conflict. It noted that sexual violence can constitute a crime against humanity and a contributing act to genocide, called for improved monitoring of sexual violence in conflict, and urged the U.N. and donors to assist survivors.

Jolie, who has traveled extensively in her role as goodwill ambassador, recalled several of the survivors she had met – the mother of a five-year-old girl raped outside a police station in Goma in eastern Congo, and a Syrian woman she spoke to in Jordan last week who asked to hide her name and face ‘because she knew that if she spoke out about the crimes against her she would be attacked again, and possibly killed.’

Jolie pleaded with the Security Council – and all countries – to implement the resolution and not let the issue drop.

‘Meet your commitments, debate this issue in your parliaments, mobilize people in your countries, and build it into all your foreign policy efforts,’ she urged. ‘Together, you can turn the tide of global opinion, shatter impunity and finally put an end to this abhorrence.’

Secretary-General Ban paid tribute to Jolie for being the voice of millions forced to flee their homes ‘and now for the many survivors of wartime rape whose bodies have been used as battlegrounds.’

[From The Mail]

I remember, back in 2004-06, the discussion about whether the systematic rape of Darfurian women (and girls) by the Janjaweed constituted a “crime against humanity”. There was a lot of word-parsing and legalese and it really bothered me because the widespread evidence of mass rape was all around, and very few people were doing anything about it. I was reminded of the Darfur case as proof that what Angelina is doing is actually very important – many countries (even Western countries) have problems acknowledging mass rapes as part and parcel of genocide. Anyway, good on Angie. As always.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.