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The special United Nations envoy Angelina Jolie, who is one of the organizers of the summit said in her closing speech that now was the time for concrete actions, since the worlds attention is on wartime rape survivors.
“Now we can achieve change. In this time thousands of women are being raped around the world and for them help cannot come soon enough. This is why I appeal on all statesmen to adopt laws and endure prosecution of perpetrators, on experts to use the protocol and document sexual violence incidents, but I appeal on everyone to keep survivors at the forefront”, said Jolie.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal court Fatou Bensouda said that the international community has all the las to ensure justice for victims, but it was vital to make sure local prosecutions are equipped to handle wartime sexual violence cases.
“We will work with local partners to achieve justice and end impunity. History will judge us on our actions, not our words, this is why the time is now for concrete actions”, said Bensouda.
US Secretary of State John Kerry also addressed the summit saying that the fact that delegates of 123 states were present gives him hope that the time was right to end wartime sexual violence.
“Thousands of years ago, wartime sexual violence was first used as a tool of war, but today we are the ones that can banish it to the history books where it belongs. We want to write new norms. We have achieved this before, just look at his atomic warfare is unthinkable today”, said Kerry.
He added that wartime sexual crimes were a “stain on the collective morals of humanity”.
At the end of the summit, British Foreign secretary William Hague also spoke saying that he was convinced that today will be marked in history as the day when the “first steps were taken to stop wartime sexual violence against girls, women, boys and men”.
“This summit is a huge success because it has opened eyes of people to this horrible issue. I am proud of the concrete steps we have agreed to take and I hope that we will stay the course and that this movement will keep growing”, said Hague.
The London summit took place between June 10 and 13, with more that 100 states attending.
