Angelina Jolie and Jens Stoltenberg – Picture by NATO.
Wednesday, 31 January 2018, Brussels, NATO Headquarters: UN High Commissioner’s for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Special Envoy Ms. Angelina Jolie visited NATO Headquarters.
Welcoming Ms. Jolie, Secretary General Mr. Jens Stoltenberg praised her “strong voice” and “great leadership for empowering women and the fight against sexual violence”. Noting that NATO is based on democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and the UN Charter, Mr. Stoltenberg pointed to the Alliance’s long record of fighting extremist groups which oppress women, like the Taliban and ISIS. “NATO has the responsibility to be a leading protector of women’s rights” he said.
NATO has extensive pre-deployment training for soldiers and civilians in the field, and deploys gender advisers to operations. NATO will work to strengthen existing training on combating sexual violence. Monitoring and reporting is a core task for NATO commanders, and the Alliance will work to be faster and more systematic in ways so that perpetrators can be brought to justice. Increased awareness will help put gender violence higher on the agenda and contribute to changing behavior. Mr. Stoltenberg stressed: “we must shine a bright light on these darkest of crimes”.
At NATO, Special Envoy Jolie also met with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Deputy Secretary General Ms. Rose Gottemoeller, as well as the Alliance’s new Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security, Ms. Clare Hutchinson. Ms. Jolie also met with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, and receive briefings from NATO’s gender advisers in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
In December, Secretary General Stoltenberg and Special Envoy Jolie published a joint op-ed entitled “Why NATO must defend women’s rights”.
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