Yahoo Lifestyle Angelina Jolie to launch UK's first academic centre for women in warzones
Angelina Jolie has announced the launch of a new centre in London for women affected by warzone conflict. Photo: Getty Images
Angelina Jolie attended an event at the London School of Economics on February 10 to promote her latest campaign, an academic centre which aims to help women in conflict.
The 39-year-old, a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), and England's First Secretary of State, William Hague, announced the launch of their latest initiative during an event
The new centre will focus on helping "women in conflict-related processes and on enhancing accountability and ending impunity for rape and sexual violence in war", according to a press release.
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Ange, who has recently returned from a trip to northern Iraq where she visited with refugees who had been forced to flee from their homes due to Islamic State (Isis) violence, calls for “the empowerment of women to be the highest priority for the finest minds, in the best academic institutions”.
"I am excited at the thought of all the students in years to come who will study in this new centre. There is no stable future for a world in which crimes committed against women go unpunished. We need the next generation of educated youth with inquisitive minds and fresh energy, who are willing not only to sit in the classroom but to go out into the field and the courtrooms and to make a decisive difference," the actress added.
She previously spoke to the UK's Guardian about those she hopes the centre will be helping most.
Angelina meeting with refugees during her recent visit to Iraq. Photo: Andrew McConnell/UNHCR via Getty Images
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"If you were to ask me who I think this centre is for, I picture someone who is not in this room today. I think of a girl I met in Iraq three weeks ago. She is 13 years old, but instead of going to school, she sits on the floor in a makeshift tent."
The girl, who was held by Isis as a sex slave, "may never be able to complete her education, or get married or have a family, because in her society victims of rape are shunned, and considered shameful. To my mind, what we have begun today at LSE is for that Iraqi girl and others like her,” added the humanitarian.
The centre is expected to open next year and will support the goals of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), which was also co-founded by Ange and Mr. Hague in 2012.
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