Actress, director and humanitarian Angelina Jolie Pitt gave a moving speech before the British Parliament on Tuesday to speak out against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and their rape policies. Jolie Pitt, a special envoy for the United Nations Human Rights Council, told her audience that the Islamic State was using rape as a "policy" and urged a "very strong response," reported the New York Post.
"This is what is beyond something we have seen before," Jolie Pitt said. "This is actually put into their policy. They are saying, 'We should do this, this is the right way to build a society, so we tell you to rape.'"
"The most important thing is to understand what it's not: it's not sexual. It's a violent, brutal, terrorizing weapon and it is used, unfortunately, everywhere," she added.
But it was the actual use of rape within ISIS' methods that Jolie Pitt claimed was the most shocking discovery, reported The Hollywood Reporter. She then described a time when she met a 13-year-old Iraqi girl who had been repeatedly raped, along with her friends.
"They told me that what was even worse than the physical violence was that they then had to stand in rooms and watch their friends be sold and to hear about what they were worth. Were they worth $40? $50? What was their value? ... It made her question what she was worth," Jolie Pitt said.
Jolie Pitt has led a campaign for refugee causes for more than a decade, and in 2012 was named a U.N. special envoy, according to Entertainment Weekly. She previously served as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. and chaired a global summit with former British foreign secretary William Hague.
Check out Jolie Pitt's moving part of the speech below.
