Sophie Wessex is being honoured right this moment by Hillary Clinton as an ‘extraordinary trailblazer’ for working to advertise ladies’s rights.
The Countess, 57, is being recognised for her work campaigning towards sexual violence in battle zones on the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards ceremony.
The occasion is happening at The Georgetown Institute for Ladies, Peace and Safety in Washington DC, with the Countess, Ukraine’s First Woman Olena Zelenska and the UK and Ukrainian ambassadors to the US in attendance.
It comes because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex dropped the second trailer for his or her bombshell Netflix documentary telling ‘their story’ about life within the Royal household.
Sophie, Countess of Wessex is being honoured right this moment by Hillary Clinton as an ‘extraordinary trailblazer’ for serving to to advertise ladies’s rights
The awards are bestowed yearly by the previous US Secretary of State for ‘distinctive management in advancing ladies’s rights and making a extra peaceable and safe world for all’.
The Royal, who’s married to Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, is within the US on her second journey to there this yr, after she addressed the UN relating to violence towards ladies in March.
Sophie has been lauded by the awards as ‘a full-time working member of the Royal Household and a patron of over 70 charities and organisations.’
She shouldn’t be the one Royal being honoured this week. Harry and Meghan are anticipated to attend the Ripple of Hope Award ceremony in New York, the place they are going to be honoured for his or her ‘ethical braveness’ by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation.
Harry and Meghan are anticipated to attend the Ripple of Hope Award ceremony in New York, the place they are going to be honoured for his or her ‘ethical braveness’ by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation
Opening the awards ceremony right this moment, Mrs Clinton stated that in Iran, Ukraine, Yemen and Tigray ‘ladies and ladies are caught up in battle and are victims of horrific sexual violence.’
The previous US First Woman additionally highlighted the significance of understanding ladies’s experiences of conflict and contributions to bringing peace.
‘Ladies usually are not simply victims of conflict, they’re brokers of peace,’ she stated.
She stated that those that interact in ‘systemic rape’ in warzones are ‘responsible of crimes towards humanity’ and ‘should be held to account’.
The awards are bestowed yearly by the previous US Secretary of State (pictured final week) for ‘distinctive management in advancing ladies’s rights and making a extra peaceable and safe world for all’
She added that the Countess has ‘devoted her time to supporting the UN’s Ladies, Peace and Safety Agenda’.
‘She has travelled to among the most violent and tough battle zones to satisfy with survivors and highlight their wants.’
Sophie was honoured for her ‘service’ and ‘highly effective advocacy inside the international group to assist survivors and produce an finish to sexual violence’ in addition to for ‘offering hope to many who desperately wish to have their lives again’.
The Countess spoke as she was offered with the award, and condemned using sexual violence as a ‘weapon of whole management and concern’ in her speech.
‘Like chemical weapons it should turn out to be one thing that’s reviled by the worldwide group, it should be one thing that’s prohibited on the highest ranges,’ she stated.
The Countess of Wessex with surgeon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr Denis Mukwege at a Panzi Hospital, in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, the place she met victims of conflict-related sexual violence and trauma in October this yr
‘Too lengthy have survivors of rape in conflict had no voice, too lengthy have they needed to naked the burden of others inaction on these crimes and too lengthy have the perpetrators not been held to account.’
The Countess of Wessex is being celebrated alongside 4 Ukrainian campaigners and leaders who’ve fought to uphold and advance ladies’s rights, together with the First Woman of Ukraine, Ms Zelenska.
The British and Ukrainian ambassadors to the US, Dame Karen Pierce and Oksana Markarova, have been additionally current on the ceremony.
Sophie additionally joined Ms Zelenska at a significant international convention in London final week to name for an finish to rape in warzones.
President Zelensky’s spouse informed the Stopping Sexual Violence in Battle summit that rape is getting used ‘systematically and overtly’ by occupiers in her nation 9 months after it was invaded by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
She stated that survivors are sometimes too scared to testify throughout wartime, including that Ukraine has received maintain of recordings of Russian troops overtly discussing rape with family members again house.
‘That is one other instrument that they are utilizing as their weaponry. That is one other weapon of their arsenal on this conflict and battle. That is why they’re utilizing this systematically and overtly,’ she informed the convention.
The Countess of Wessex is being celebrated alongside 4 Ukrainian campaigners and leaders who’ve fought to uphold and advance ladies’s rights, together with the First Woman of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska (pictured addressing MPs in Parliament final week)
On the summit, the Countess of Wessex additionally described her expertise visiting hospitals for rape victims within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She praised docs there and stated that she hoped passing on her expertise assembly survivors would assist folks to recollect their ‘humanity’.
Sophie beforehand labored with the Georgetown Institute in March, because it co-hosted an occasion on Upholding Ladies’s Rights in Afghanistan with the Group of Buddies of Ladies in Afghanistan and UN Ladies.
She has travelled to battle areas together with Kosovo, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and others to ‘reply to the wants of surviviors in addition to to sort out the stigma and ache that endure and don’t diminish with time.’
‘She listens to their harrowing tales, is impressed by their dedication to not be outlined by what’s occurred to them,’ the host of right this moment’s award ceremony stated.
On Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2019, Sophie introduced her dedication to champion the Ladies, Peace and Safety Agenda and the Stopping Violence in Battle Initiative, for which she has ‘supplied lively management’.
The Countess additionally travelled to New York earlier this yr in her position as International Ambassador of 100 Ladies in Finance’s Subsequent Era Initiative.