Hillary Clinton Award | 02/26/2014
Lord William Hague is a vocal advocate for addressing sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict and made the issue a foreign policy priority of the U.K. government during his tenure.
Lord Hague was appointed the British Foreign Secretary from 2010-2014 by Prime Minister David Cameron and served as the leader of the UK Conservative Party from 1997 until 2001.
In 2012, he launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative with UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie Pitt, to address the culture of impunity that exists for crimes of sexual violence in conflict, and increase the number of perpetrators held to account.
“I believe that there is no greater strategic prize for the 21st century than the full social, political and economic empowerment of women everywhere,” said Hague at Georgetown. “This must be the century in which women take their rightful place … into a world of equal treatment and boundless opportunity.”
The British Foreign Secretary also spearheaded the 2013 effort to pass a U.N. Security Council Resolution that focused on the critical need to end impunity against perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, and the launch of a Declaration of Commitment at the U.N. General Assembly that has been endorsed by 140 countries.