Press release

Baroness Anelay visits Kosovo and announces new UK support on PSVI

Baroness Anelay is visiting Kosovo to discuss PSVI and other priorities, including the Special Court on war crimes and Kosovo’s reform agenda

From:
Foreign & Commonwealth Office and The Rt Hon Baroness Anelay of St Johns DBE
Published
21 July 2015
Baroness Anelay

In the first visit to Kosovo by a British Minister since 2012, Foreign Office Minister for Human Rights and the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI), Baroness Anelay will meet the President and the Prime Minister, and hear first-hand from survivors of sexual violence.

The UK is committed to supporting the President of Kosovo’s leadership on PSVI and during the visit Baroness Anelay will announce new UK support of £80,000 for the Kosovo Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and its partners.

This funding will support the valuable work the Centre is doing to help survivors of sexual violence in conflict through programmes of rehabilitation and economic empowerment.

The Minister will also pledge UK support for training in Kosovo on the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict. This will strengthen best practice in Kosovo on the documentation of sexual violence as a crime in conflict and will help ensure survivors in Kosovo can access the support, services and justice they deserve.

As part of Kosovo’s efforts to address the wrongs of the past, Baroness Anelay will also encourage Kosovo’s leaders to establish the Special Court on war crimes, an essential element in promoting the rule of law and the fight against impunity.

Baroness Anelay said:

I am delighted to make my first visit to Kosovo and to find out more about the work of the President and her partners in tackling the crime of sexual violence in conflict and supporting survivors.

The visit will enable me in particular to hear first-hand from survivors about the challenges they face, and also to learn more about what is being done to tackle impunity and to strengthen the rule of law for the benefit of all Kosovo’s people.

Further information

  • More information on PSVI can be found here

  • More information on the work of the British Embassy in Kosovo can be found here

  • Follow Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay on Twitter @JoyceAnelay

  • Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice

  • Follow the Foreign Office on Facebook and Google+

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Published 21 July 2015

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