Baroness Anelay, the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI), held talks with the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie Pitt, and the African Union Chairperson, Madame Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Together with Madame Zuma, they agreed to do more to challenge attitudes to sexual violence, support victims and empower women in conflict-affected areas. They agreed the importance of intensifying PSVI work in conflict areas in Iraq and Syria, where UK troops have so far trained 700 peshmerga fighters in preventing and responding to sexual violence.
Since the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the UK has provided training in prevention and response to sexual violence to 100 AU and UN peacekeepers and 700 Kurdish peshmerga. The UK Team of PSVI Experts has been deployed worldwide, including to the Syrian border, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the DRC. Over £20 million of funding has been allocated to PSVI-related work, such as supporting grassroots and human rights organisations, the work of the AU and UN and the International Criminal Court’s Trust Fund for Victims.
So far in 2015 over £6 million of funding has been announced for PSVI-related programmes. This funding includes support to women’s peacekeeping teams in South Sudan, training Syrian media activists in the use of radio to empower women and engage men in overturning social norms around the reporting of sexual violence, and provision of comprehensive support to survivors of sexual violence in Bosnia, alongside integration of the International Protocol in local Bosnian institutions, such as criminal courts.
In a press release, Jolie said "I am delighted that Baroness Anelay has been appointed the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict and that the UK government continues to lead on this initiative. I am looking forward to working with the UK government and international partners like the African Union to prioritise this issue and change laws, attitudes and support for survivors around the world."
