Angelina Jolie urges UN Security Council to help end rape in war

June 18, 2013 - Special envoy Angelina Jolie taking notes as she speaks with Syrian refugees in a Jordanian military camp near the Syria-Jordan border. (photo released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (AP)

UNITED NATIONS – Actress Angelina Jolie is making her debut before the U.N.'s most powerful body as a special envoy for refugees and urging the world's nations to make the fight against rape in war a top priority.

She told the Security Council Monday that "hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes."

But Jolie said "the world has yet to take up warzone rape as a serious priority."

"You set the bar," she told the Security Council. "If the ... council sets rape and sexual violence in conflict as a priority it will become one and progress will be made. If you do not, this horror will continue."