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Desert Island Discs

Baroness Arminka Helić

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Baroness Arminka Helić is credited with persuading William Hague, the former foreign secretary, and the actor and director Angelina Jolie to launch the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) to campaign against rape as a weapon of war. Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Arminka fled her home country as violence escalated in the former Yugoslavia and her family appeared on a Serbian death list. Following the intervention of Lady Miloska Nott, wife of the former secretary of state for defence Sir John Nott, she arrived in London as a refugee in October 1992. She completed a master’s degree in international history at the LSE which ignited her interest in politics. Her first Westminster job was filing press cuttings in the House of Commons Library where she was spotted and started working for MPs including Robert Key, Liam Fox and William Hague. When William Hague became foreign secretary in 2010, she joined him as a special adviser and made it her mission to bring compassion and humanity to foreign policy. After watching Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, the story of an inter-ethnic love affair set against the backdrop of the war in Bosnia, Arminka persuaded the foreign secretary to join forces with the Hollywood star. The PSVI highlights how sexual violence in conflict zones is often a hidden crime in which the perpetrators go unpunished. In 2014 the PSVI held a global summit in London which brought together activists and policy-makers with the aim of recognizing this crime and bringing about successful prosecutions. In the same year, Arminka Helić entered the House of Lords as a Conservative Life Peer. DISC ONE: Tereza Kesovija - Prijatelji Stari Gdje Ste DISC TWO: Kim Wilde - Cambodia DISC THREE: Zaim Imamović - Kraj Tanana Šadrvana DISC FOUR: Tracy Chapman - Fast Car DISC FIVE: Bijelo Dugme - Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo DISC SIX: Madonna - True Blue DISC SEVEN: Vivaldi - Concerto in F minor, RV 297 “Winter”, 1st movement by performed by The English Concert DISC EIGHT: Josipa Lisac - O jednoj mladosti BOOK CHOICE: A DIY book LUXURY ITEM: A pen and paper CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Kraj Tanana Šadrvana by Zaim Imamović Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.6

Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.3

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.7

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:20.9

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:30.0

Music Radio Music

0:42.2

My cast away today is Baroness Arminga Helich.

0:45.5

When she was sworn into the House of Lords as a life peer in 2014, the upper chamber

0:50.0

got a sprinkling of stardust.

0:51.8

She was watched by her good friend Angelina Jolie, while Hillary Clinton sent her congratulations.

0:57.7

As a special adviser to the former foreign secretary William Hague, she's credited with

1:02.0

persuading him to launch a high profile campaign against rape as a weapon of war.

1:07.0

Her own moral framework comes from personal experience.

1:10.6

Born in Bosnia, her Sir Govina, she was in her early 20s when simmering tensions erupted

1:15.6

in the former Yugoslavia, leading to one of the bloodiest European conflicts in recent

1:20.1

history.

1:21.2

One of the lucky ones she fled her homeland in dramatic fashion with only a leather jacket

1:25.6

and a can of hairspray to her name.

1:27.9

She arrived at Heathrow Airport as a refugee in 1992, scarred by what she'd seen and bewildered

1:33.8

by London.

1:34.8

Over the course of the next 20 years, she was in her own words seduced by politics and

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