Angelina Jolie spoke out against war rape Friday during her visit to Bosnia.
"There can be no peace while women in conflict or post-conflict zones are raped with impunity," the Oscar-winning actress said in Sarajevo, Reuters reported.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague accompanied Jolie in campaigning to end sexual violence against women. She and Hague will co-host a global conference in London in June focused on preventing rape and its role as a war tactic.
Those present said Jolie was visibly moved while listening to victims in the town of Srebrenica.
"Our tradition is not to talk about the rape," said Munira Subasic, the head of the association of Srebrenica mothers.
"Many women have been through it but don't talk about it. That is why this visit is important, to show them they don't have to cope with it alone," she said.
Around 20,000 women were raped during the war between Bosnia's Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks and Croats -- and more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Jolie, who previously represented United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a Goodwill Ambassador, hopes to unravel the silence surrounding war rape. Her film "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which dealt with sexual violence inflicted on a woman during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, partially inspired the effort.
Jolie and Hague laid flowers at a cemetery for Bosnian Muslim victims of the Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic killed around 8,000 Muslim men and boys after the U.N.-protected area fell into their hands in July 1995. Mladic is now on trial for genocide at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague.
Jolie has conducted more than 40 field visits around the world, and in April 2012 was appointed as Special Envoy of UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.
