Angelina Jolie Urges Action on High Rape Cases in War Zones
Special Envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency and actress Angelina Jolie, urges the UN Council to take the lead against the rape cases happening in the wake of the long standing war in Syria.
In her speech, Ms. Jolie said that rape cases in the war zone "happen not because they are inherent to war, but because the global climate allows it. Young girls raped and impregnated before their bodies are able to carry a child, causing fistula. 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. Toddlers and even babies dragged from their homes and violated. They suffer the most at the hands of their rapists, but they are also victims of this culture of impunity. That is the sad, upsetting and indeed shameful reality."
Ms. Jolie emphasized that only few of the rape perpetrators were being finished because officials around the world failed to give the matter its utmost priority.
After Ms. Jolie's talk with the council, the Security Council headed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Zainab Bangura, Ban's special envoy on violence, came up with a resolution identifying rape as a major block against restoring peace and security around different nations.
Mr. Bangura said that, "for the survivors of the sexual violence that war has not ended. While the perpetrators have enjoyed the fruits of peace and have been free to rebuild their lives, their victims continue to walks in shadow and shame, unable to lay the past to rest and to move forward."
Mr. Ban KI-moon, on the other hand, shared his experience when he visited a hospital in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, "many had a condition called traumatic fistula. In plain terms, they had been torn inside. Experiencing great pain and often unable to control bladder and bowels, they are disabled and often shunned by society."
Ms. Jolie also had her first hand experience of talking with war victims herself.
Ms. Jolie, with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, visited Jordan's Za'atri refugee camp to celebrate the World refuge Day.
In the camp, Ms. Jolie talked with a refugee family from Damascus and had reached the camp eight months ago. Ahmed, the father of the family shared with Ms. Jolie that they decided to evacuate after a mortar explosion which hit their house. He recalled that his 4-year-old son Hamad was playing on the floor when he left him to get something. Hamad suffered a birth defect which left him unable to walk. Within seconds after he left his son playing, the mortar explosion happened. His son suffered trauma and was left deaf.
Ahmed said that he wanted to stay in their country, but after the bombing, it was just too difficult."
Mouna, the mother of the family told Ms. Jolie that her children "lived in extreme fear in Syrua because of the aerial bombardments. Even in the camp, when a plane comes over, the kids get so frightened. They run away and hide."
Ms. Jolie took their stories in her heart. She told them that, "It's very hard for us to understand what you went through. Your suffering is so great. It is clear that the conflict must be brought to the end."
Speaking with the reporters present Ms. Jolie told reporters that, "the Syrian crisis here in Jordan and across the region is the most acute humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world today. Refugees from Syrua have left behind a country in which millions of people are displaced, and where at least 93,000 have been killed: the friends, neighbors, fathers, mothers and children of people in this camp today."
"I pray that all parties in the Syrian conflict will stop targeting civilians and allow access to humanitarian aid. I appeal to world leaders to set aside your differences, unite to end the violence, make diplomacy succeed. The UN Security must live up to its promise."