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| Angelina Jolie with a Syrian refugee in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in September |
The
fight against warzone rape got a big boost this week. Actress and UN Special
Envoy Angelina Jolie and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague have joined forces
to fight warzone rape, most notably in Syria.
Speaking
exclusively to Channel 4 News
presenter Cathy Newman, Jolie explains why she can’t stay silent on warzone
rape as the UK prepares to send an expert team to Syria to gather evidence and
support rape victims.
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| William Hague to Channel 4 News on why rape in conflict matters |
Hague told Channel
4 News a British team will enter Syria shortly, to support
the growing number of women who are raped as the country continues to fight the
regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He
said he wants to emulate his hero, anti-slave trade campaigner William
Wilberforce, by embarking
on a mission to stamp out sexual violence. "The team will first be
deployed to help Syrian refugees, I won't say exactly where for their safety,” Hague
told Channel 4 News.
"This
is a team of 70 people, doctors, lawyers, forensic experts, psychologists and
they will have their first deployment to help Syrians fleeing the conflict, which
has included sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war, to train local
medical experts to gather medical evidence that can be used so that
prosecutions can one day take place."
Angelina Jolie talks to Channel 4 News on war, rape and her UN role
Angelina
Jolie has campaigned against rape as a weapon of war for many years. She has visited
Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and called for an end to the
violence in Syria, now in its 21st month.
Speaking
to Channel 4 News on Saturday, Jolie said: "I think it
(the deployment of British experts) must be done.
"I
work a lot with refugees and you meet the people and they immediately want to
start talking, they want to know what's happening to their future. They want to
participate and put on record what is happening in the country.
"They
want things not to be missed, they want to know one day they will be able to go
home and there will be accountability. It matters to them emotionally and it
matters to the future of their country on a legal level that they will be able
to find some justice and move forward and have their basic human rights
protected."
Asked
whether she was thinking of giving up acting, Jolie replied, "Of course. I
think I'm going to have to give up acting as kids hit the teenage years because
there is going to be too much to manage at home."
She
added, "But I have enjoyed being an actress... I will do some films. I'm
so fortunate to have the job. It's a very lucky profession to be in. But if it
went away tomorrow, I would be very happy to be at home with my children."
Jolie
said, "I wake up in the morning and turn on the TV like everyone else and
I see what is happening in the world. I want to be a part of the world in a
positive way."
Jolie
conducted more than 40 field visits around the world for the UNHCR, starting as a Goodwill Ambassador in 2001 and now as a Special
Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The total number of Syrian registered refugees and
individuals awaiting registration is 465,823 as of November 29, according to UNHCR.
They are now living in camps and temporary homes inside Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon
and Iraq.
Jolie visited Syrian refugees in Jordan,
Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq in September and witnessed
Syrians crossing into Jordan, becoming refugees before her eyes.
"The amount of innocent children that have been reported
dead, the amount of innocent children I've met here who are wounded and
unaccompanied -- with their parents being killed and now they're on their own
-- it's impossible to imagine any mother standing by and not stepping up and
doing something to prevent this," she said then.
Watch the video: Cathy
Newman's full interview with Angelina Jolie and William Hague
