William Hague’s summit against warzone rape goes south

[cronus]

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... k-campaign

William Hague’s summit against warzone rape seen as ‘costly failure’

The money Britain spent hosting a global summit, headed by William Hague and Angelina Jolie, to end sexual violence in conflicts was five times higher than the entire confirmed budget the UK has dedicated to tackling rape in war zones this year.

A year after the high-profile London summit concluded with Hague, the former foreign secretary, pledging “to end one of the greatest injustices of our time”, the Observer can also reveal the initiative has had negligible impact and that British funding has been withdrawn from vital projects.

An investigation into the impact of Hague and US film star Jolie’s initiative in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that incidents of rape and sexual violence have increased in the region.

Evidence of the continued targeting of women and a failure to prosecute perpetrators will inform discussions this week as a new parliamentary inquiry into the “preventing sexual violence in conflict” initiative launched by Hague and Jolie in 2012 takes place.

New figures reveal that the three-day London summit to promote the initiative last June cost £5.2m to host. The food bill alone came to more than £299,000, while total expenditure on taxis, hotels and transport reached £576,000.

The Foreign Office on Saturday night would confirm only that it had awarded £1m this year to the project, stating that unspecified sums from other schemes would supplement the fund.

Marcy Hersh of the Women’s Refugee Commission said: “For an initiative that used such lofty language, I struggle to see what the initiative has tangibly created, other than recognition, acknowledgement and sympathy for the issue.”

(continued, helped get the Tories re-elected on a white knight do-gooder ticket also....? )