Angelina Jolie welcomes G-8 action, additional funding to combat sexual violence in war

LONDON – Angelina Jolie has brought her celebrity wattage to London to back a favourite cause: fighting sexual violence in military conflicts.

She has joined British Foreign Secretary William Hague in announcing $36 million in additional funding from G-8 foreign ministers for the subject.

Hague said the ministers who were meeting Thursday in London also made the “historic” declaration that rape and serious sexual violence in conflicts constitute war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

Jolie — a special envoy for the U.N. High Commission on Refugees — welcomed the “long overdue stand” on sexual violence.

Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war in several conflicts, including the civil war in Syria, the Bosnian war and battles in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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