Hague’s rape summit with Angelina cost £5 MILLION – and achieved nothing at all
WILLIAM HAGUE f aced criticism l ast night as it emerged that a high-profile summit he held with Angelina Jolie about rape in war zones cost more than £5million.
The former foreign secretary spent four days hosting the lavish summit in London last summer, which he said would help to eliminate the scourge of sexual violence in conflict.
With delegates from 123 countries attending, the food bill alone came to more than £299,000, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
Spending on taxis, hotel accommodation and transport for dignitaries came to £576,000. The total bill was £5.2million.
But i t has emerged that the Foreign Office budget to tackle the issue of sexual violence in conflict is only £1million this year – a fifth of the cost of the summit.
Mr Hague and Miss Jolie travelled to war-torn Congo in March 2013 to promote t he i ni t i ati ve af t er hundreds of women there were systematically raped by soldiers in the town of Minova.
The UN said the atrocity was ‘horrifying’ in its scale and systematic nature. Army commanders had allegedly ordered their men to ‘ go and get women’. Victims were gangraped in front of their children – and at least 30 of those attacked were children themselves.
The mass rape drew international attention, and after the pair’s visit Congolese prosecutors hastily set up a trial and promised justice for the victims.
But no one has yet been prosecuted, and most of the 56 women who testified in court are said to have suffered from threats and reprisals, according to an investigation by The Observer.
The American Bar Association in Congo, which has the names of 1,014 more victims, told the newspaper that prosecutions for rape had actually fallen in the area since then.
A women’s refuge in the area said it had received more cases of sexual violence, and charities said grants they had been given to help victims had run out, the newspaper claimed.
Tamah Murfet, of the International Rescue Committee’s women’s protection unit in the Congo, told the paper: ‘Funding is very low for tackling sexual violence: Across the board i t has decreased. Major donors have dropped out of this area and it’s become very difficult to even get minimal coverage.’
A Foreign Office spokesman said Britain had awarded £1million in 2015-16 to non- government organisations in a range of countries working on the Preventing Sexual Violence initiative.
It has also, in the past, paid £1million to the office of Zainab Bangura, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence, £800,000 to an initiative in the Central African Republic, and £7million to victims’ organisations in other conflict areas.
Marcy Hersh, of the Women’s Refugee Commission, said: ‘For an initiative that used such l ofty language, I struggle to see what the initiative has tangibly created, other than recognition, acknowledgement and sympathy for the issue.’
Mr Hague drew applause at the summit at London’s Excel Centre last year when he said that ‘we owe it to future generations to end one of the greatest injustices of our time’. But he drew criticism for spending four days at Miss Jolie’s side, amid a deepening crisis in Iraq where Isis was on the march, and Russian tanks rolling into eastern Ukraine.
It was announced last week that Mr Hague had stepped down as special envoy i n charge of the initiative, although he said he would continue using his ‘unusual alliance’ with Miss Jolie to continue fighting sexual violence.
Last night the Foreign Office confirmed that the total costs of holding the summit came to £5,221,766.60. Costs included security, venue hire, design and build, translation and interpretation, transport and staff costs.
It added that i t had so f ar contributed approximately £11.5million to the Preventing Sexual Violence initiative.
‘No one has been prosecuted’
DAZZLeD like a star-struck teenager at the chance to rub shoulders with Hollywood royalty, William Hague allowed £5.2million in taxpayers’ money to be spent on the summit he co-hosted in London with actress Angelina Jolie to publicise their ‘rape in conflict’ intiative.
And for what? Nearly a year after the high-profile conference, charities report that sexual violence in conflict zones is actually rising and British funding has been withdrawn from many projects. mr Hague has even quietly stepped down as ‘special envoy’ for the intiative.
The mail normally has high regard for the former Foreign Secretary but what did all this absurd posturing achieve, other than satisfying his own vanity? It was not his finest hour.