Survivors Speak OUT help shape the International Protocol on sexual violence in conflict

Kolbassia Haoussou, Freedom from Torture's Survivors Speak OUT (SSO) Network co-founder and coordinator, joined the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Special Envoy for Refugees Angelina Jolie to launch the new International Protocol on documenting and investigating sexual violence in conflict at the Global Summit in London.

Survivors Speak OUT, a torture survivor activist network founded by former clients of the charity Freedom from Torture, has been helping to shape the International Protocol from a survivor point of view. William Hague thanked the network for all their work on the Protocol.

Mr Haoussou said:

"As a survivor-led activist network, SSO are proud to lend their voice to the discussion on ending sexual violence both in and outside conflict zones. The way in which the UK FCO has involved us in this programme is an important shift in perception. It means survivors of torture and sexual abuse are no longer seen as "victims" but that we are recognised as experts in helping to find solutions to human rights violations.

When the FCO invited the SSO network to review the Protocol, this represented a first-step towards a crucial survivor-centred approach and empowering individuals who experienced horrendous ordeals at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them.

Only by survivors continuing to work together with practitioners and states can we shift the shame and stigma from survivors to perpetrators, and end sexual violence in conflict."