Angelina Jolie Joins Forces With Stella McCartney For War Child UK

The Global Summit To End Sexual Violence begins in London today

UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie is a seriously busy woman. The Global Summit To End Sexual Violence, co-hosted with Foreign Secretary William Hague, begins today in London, where she’s also announcing a new campaign with Stella McCartney and the charity War Child UK, highlighting the plight of children living in war zones.

We literally couldn’t feel any more in awe of one woman.

'I hope [The Global Summit] will bring recognition and dignity for survivors, so they feel less alone, less stigmatised and see help coming,' Angelina told Marie Claire’s Andrea Thompson in an exclusive interview, out now.

Millions of rapes and violent sexual crimes happen in war-stricken countries around the world and Angelina recognises that it is a huge problem to tackle. In her Marie Claire interview, she shares the harrowing stories of victims she has met and discusses her proposed plan of action to drive change. 'One of the biggest challenges is to persuade people we can actually change this situation,' she told us. 'We all agree that rape is a terrible crime. But many people have got used to thinking of it as an inevitable feature of war.'

The conference, running for the next three days at the ExCel centre, will see a whole programme of free public events and is the biggest of its kind, with 140 countries taking part.

One of the key events will be the announcement of War Child UK’s new campaign Draw Me to Safety, which Angelina has worked on with Stella. Using art created by both British children and children living in conflict-zones, the event aims to analyse what the concept of safety means to children today.

With six and four children respectively, Angelina and Stella are both working mothers, leaders in their fields, and pioneers for global change (Stella’s ethical values have been driving change in the fashion industry for years). We can’t think of two better or more influential ambassadors for the cause.

Read our full interview with Angelina Jolie in the July issue of Marie Claire, out now.