It’s #TimeToAct

We’ve just had an extraordinary few days here with the State Visit of Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – but of course there’s a lot else happening in the world as well.

I talked before about my foreign minister William Hague’s initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict. Well, the big summit in London is now underway. Four days focused on this crucial issue.

Transcript (cont.)

A lot of what is being called fringe activity – in other words, films, theatre productions, musical events – offers opportunities for the public to join in, as well as the governmental day of the Summit on Thursday 12 June. The whole point is to generate a worldwide momentum to make the use of sexual violence completely unacceptable and to get away from any sense of impunity.

You can follow the action on the live Twitter feed and on social networking sites. We’ll have the details on our social networking pages. We’re intending to put up on the facade of the Embassy the hashtag “TimeToAct” which has become a global vehicle for people to express their determination to help in this campaign.

The British Government has announced more money, another £5 million to go both to the UN trust fund and to the International Office for Migration to help those who are the victims of sexual violence. And we’re taking a particular case that is of Nigeria and the terrible business of the taking hostage of 200 girls by Boko Haram as the occasion for a ministerial conference to help the Nigerians which will also be taking place on 12 June and the French minister Mme Anne Girardin will be there for that.

So a great deal of activity in London this week, designed to create unstoppable momentum against this war crime.