Angelina Jolie expected to give keynote address at Vancouver peacekeeping summit
OTTAWA — Academy Award-winning actress Angelina Jolie is expected to lend her star power to next week’s peacekeeping summit in Vancouver.
A draft program for the two-day meeting leaked to The Canadian Press says Jolie will deliver a keynote address at the event, appearing as a special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.
The topic of Jolie’s Nov. 15 address is not listed, but the Liberal government has pushed for the summit to include discussions about increasing gender equality in peacekeeping and ending sexual abuse by warring factions — and peacekeepers themselves.
After long ignoring the issue of sexual violence in war, the international community has in recent years stepped up its efforts to end rape and other sexual crimes in conflict zones and to hold perpetrators to account.