Another step against sexual violence in conflict

‘Taking the government’s efforts to end the appalling scourge of sexual violence in conflict to the next level’.

The Prime Minister David Cameron has announced the appointment of Baroness Anelay, Foreign Office Minister of State, as his new Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.

This appointment has been made to underline the government’s commitment to leading the world in tackling sexual violence in conflict.

Baroness Anelay’s appointment comes exactly a year after the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which was hosted by the former Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie Pitt.

That Summit brought together representatives from over 120 countries to address the political and practical barriers to ending the use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war.

Speaking on the news of her appointment, Baroness Anelay said she was honoured to have been asked to take over from Hague in leading this vital work ‘across government’ and she looked forward to taking the government’s efforts to end the appalling scourge of sexual violence in conflict to the next level.

She was, she said, “proud of everything the Initiative has achieved in the last three years including the launch of the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, our support for conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, Iraq and Bosnia and of course the enormously successful Summit last June.”

“There is still much more to do,” she continued. “I am looking forward to working with civil society, governments, international organisations and survivors to ensure that we drive forward the campaign to end sexual violence in conflict once and for all.”

Joyce Anelay is a Conservative member of the House of Lords. She was raised to the peerage in 1996.

She was a history teacher from 1969 to 1974, served as a magistrate between 1985 and 1997, and was associated with the Citizens Advice Bureau in Woking from 1976 to 2010, including periods as a voluntary adviser, Chairman of the Management Committee and President of the CAB.

As Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) her responsibilities include all FCO business in the House of Lords; human rights; the UN, international organisations and International Criminal Court (ICC); migration; climate change; and international energy security policy.

And as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative (PMSR) on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict she will work with governments, the United Nations, civil society and others to strengthen accountability and tackle impunity; provide greater support for survivors; ensure gender equality is fully integrated in all peace and security efforts; and deliver a more effective multilateral response to crimes of sexual violence in conflict.

She will also promote and implement the commitments made at the June 2014 Global Summit.

She will also chair the cross-Whitehall ministerial committee which brings together the FCO, the Department for International Development (DFID), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Home Office which looks at the implementation of UK commitments as well as what additional support the UK can provide, politically and practically, key partners with in order to secure measurable progress.

She will also chair the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) Steering Board with NGOs, academia and experts.

She will undertake these activities on behalf of the Prime Minister and will report to him.

Earlier this week Anelay presented the Ambassador of Kosovo, Lirim Greicevci, with her contribution to a powerful installation by British-Kosovan artist Alketa Xhafa dedicated to the victims of sexual violence in the Kosovo conflict.

Alketa Xhafa’s ‘Thinking of You’ installation is in Pristina’s central stadium, and is formed of 10,000 skirts and dresses, representing victims of sexual violence during the Kosovo conflict.

The skirts and dresses will be hung on clotheslines across the field of the Prishtina stadium and they will be installed in the stadium for 12 June, the anniversary of the end of the 1999 conflict in Kosovo.

Alketa Xhafa-Mripa, a Kosovo native who is also a British national, has already created a similar but smaller, more intimate installation for her London exhibition, You Just Don’t Talk About It, held in March this year.

A caption at that exhibition read: “Xhafa-Mripa ‘airs out the laundry’:” “’Air dirty laundry in public’ is a way of saying, ‘Talk about your private issues in public,’ but in this case the laundry is washed, clean, like the women survivors who are clean, pure, they carry no stain.”

The idea is to create a vast and visible solidarity. And men will not be discouraged from participating.

Baroness Anelay contributed the skirt she wore at the 2010 State Opening of Parliament, when she acted as Captain of the Gentlemen at Arms, only the third time a woman has held this position since it was created in the 16th century.

Her contribution mirrors those of other prominent public figures, including that of Kosovo-born singer Rita Ora.

Anelay’s contribution was to reinforce the UK’s campaign to end sexual violence in conflict and ensure that survivors receive the recognition and support that they need.

Speaking following her meeting, Baroness Anelay said she was delighted to have the chance to make her own contribution to the ‘Thinking of You’ installation in Pristina.

“Alketa Xhafa’s installation will serve as a powerful reminder of those lives irrevocably altered by the scourge of sexual violence in conflict; and of the need to end sexual violence as a tactic of war once and for all,” she said.

“As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister who is responsible for driving forward the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, I am pleased to support the leadership of the Kosovan President Atifete Jahjaga in championing her country’s work on tacking this once taboo issue.

“Learning from the horrors of the past, and driving a cultural shift in attitudes towards victims and their experiences, is crucial to our work to ensure they are never repeated in the future.”