Angelina Jolie Gives Moving Speech to End Sexual Violence (WATCH)

By
Getty Images

Angelina Jolie kicked off the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in London on Tuesday, June 10, with a speech for all those victims of sexual abuse.

"It is a myth that rape is an inevitable part of conflict,” Jolie, 39, said. "There is nothing inevitable about it. It is a weapon of war aimed at civilians. It has nothing to do with sex, everything to do with power."

The United Nations Special Envoy had some ideas to ending sexual violence, "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 the prevention of sexual violence in conflict as part of their training."

Jolie continued, "As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, 'The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all of our citizens and all our communities.' And this evil will continue to ruin the lives of millions of people unless we make this summit a turning point--and we can. We can send a message across the world that there is no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence, that the shame is on the aggressor. We must work together in new and unprecedented ways across borders and religions bringing governments and people together and tackling the problem from every possible angle and by doing this we can end the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war once and for all. We really can do it. So, thank you so much for joining us today, for joining us in his fight, and I wish us all a very productive summit."


RELATED PICS: Jolie's Best Black Styles

The Maleficent actress, who was wearing a white Michael Kors blazer and skirt from the Spring 2014 collection, is co-hosting the summit with England's Foreign Secretary William Hague.