Gender violence: Jolie plea to punish rapists
ANGELINA Jolie had tears in her eyes as she addressed women leaders at the AU Summit in Sandton yesterday. She implored them to live up to their commitments to prosecute gender-based violence in their countries.
“You have committed yourselves to zero tolerance of violence against women. Now is the time to arrest men who commit crimes and prosecute them,” she told her audience.
“Some men revel in the subjugation of women. Rape and sexual violence is no less a crime when it happens in countries at peace.”
The actress, who caused quite a stir at the summit, relayed that she met a youth leader earlier that morning who lamented the fact that children are raped in her community, but no one says or does anything about it – a problem South Africa faces every day.
Jolie applauded AU chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma for placing women’s rights at the heart of this year’s summit, and said violence against women had become a global epidemic.
“More and more ar med groups turn violence against women and children into a weapon of choice,” she said.
On a positive note, Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence, who shared the panel with Jolie, hailed the fact that Africa is taking the lead on reducing violence against women perpetrated by their militaries.
According to Bangura, there has been a reduction by 50 percent in violence perpetrated against women by the military in the DRC.
Bangura sees the greatest challenge in ensuring women’s protection and equal rights as being in the Middle East, largely due to the rise of Islamic State. “Women are being stripped, examined, and auctioned – sometimes for a pack of cigarettes,” Bangura said.