难民署亲善大使安吉丽娜·茱莉在“结束冲突中性暴力”全球峰会上的开幕致辞

Remarks from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie

10 June 2014

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, and everything to do with power.

It is done to torture and humiliate innocent people, often very young children.

I have met survivors from Afghanistan to Somalia.

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 the 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 prevention of sexual violence in conflict as part of their training.

More than 100 countries will be represented at this Summit, and we are asking them all to take these measures.

But we need your help. We really do need your help.

This whole subject has been taboo for far too long.

Warzone rape is a crime that thrives on silence and denial.

The stigma harms survivors, it causes feelings 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 rapists 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 our citizens in all our communities.

This evil will continue, ruing the lives of millions of people, unless we make this Summit a turning point.

We must send a message around the world that there is no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence, that the shame is with the aggressor.

We must work together in new and unprecedented ways – across borders, religions, bringing governments and people together, and tackling the problem in every possible.

By doing these things, we can end the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war once and for all. We can do it.

Thank you so much for joining us today, for joining us in this fight and I wish us all a productive Summit.