Last week saw an extraordinary international conference in London. British Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie co-hosted the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. This brought together 128 country delegations and over 80 ministers. Minister of Foreign Affairs II Pehin Lim led the Brunei delegation. There were around 1,700 other delegates including eight UN Agency Heads, presidents and prosecutors from the International Criminal Court and international tribunals, civil society, and over 300 sponsored delegates. These included representatives from conflict affected countries, among them a number of survivors. They looked at every aspect of the issue, from children affected by conflict to investigating and prosecuting those committing such crimes.
A key part of the Summit was to raise global awareness of the scale of the problem. This was a new model of diplomacy. In London, the conference was advertised on the Underground. The public turned up in their thousands to take part in over 175 different events and watch 100 film screenings. Video footage from the Summit, including Fringe events, is available at the Global Summit Media Archive.
Using social media, the UK also reached out to people and organisations all around the world. In Brunei, I and British High Commission staff took pictures of the Conference message – #TimeToAct – against different city backdrops and on the Brunei River (no easy task for our photographer!)
We held a briefing with Deputy Minister Datin Adina, representatives of civil society and other distinguished Bruneians. I was really heartened by everyone’s support for the initiative. Brunei signed the UN Declaration to End Sexual Violence in Conflict last year. The country has made a longstanding and highly valued contribution to UN Peacekeeping. We continue to discuss with the Royal Brunei Armed Forces Defence Academy how best this important subject can be covered in training for Bruneian and overseas students.
The London Summit agreed the first ever International Protocol on how to document and investigate sexual violence in conflict as a means of overcoming one of the key barriers to increased prosecutions of these crimes. The UK and other donors announced major new funding to support survivors. Action plans and pilot projects were announced by individual countries. The Global Summit was an important milestone but the campaign will continue to end warzone rape and sexual violence once and for all.