After sharing that she had a “bad experience” with Harvey Weinstein when she was younger, Angelina Jolie recently discussed sexual violence and its role in Hollywood in a United Nations speech. Entertainment Weekly reports that Jolie addressed Hollywood’s publicized plight with sexual abuse while reminding the U.N. to work on the prevention of it on a global scale.
“Sexual violence is everywhere—in the industry where I work, in business, in universities, in politics, in the military and across the world,” the actress said in a keynote speech delivered at Vancouver’s U.N. Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference on Wednesday.
“All too often, these kinds of crimes against women are laughed off, depicted as a minor offense by someone who cannot control themselves, as an illness, or as some kind of exaggerated sexual need,” Jolie, who serves as a Special Envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refuges, said. “But a man who mistreats women is not oversexed. He is abusive.”
The Oscar-winning actress also touched upon the absurdity of women still experiencing sexual violence in a “time of all these laws and all these resolutions.” “Women still have to ask for this most basic of entitlements—the right to a life free from violence,” she pointed out.
Angelina Jolie spoke at the UN peacekeeping summit in Vancouver Wednesday, urging for more to be done to fight sexual violence. https://t.co/t8pMVqeL1n pic.twitter.com/n6kx882kSV
— CTV Vancouver (@CTVVancouver) November 16, 2017
While her delivery of the speech is clearly captivating, Jolie’s full speech is just as powerful. Referencing current events in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bangladesh, she closed her speech by calling the audience to action.
“In doing this work, you will not only help to strengthen your societies and improve peacekeeping,” said Jolie, “but you will play your part in showing that no perpetrator is above the law and no survivor is beneath it.”
Props to Jolie for using her special position to bring even more attention to the worldwide issues of sexual violence and abuse.