After more than 60 missions in the field, the actress wants to engage “differently” and more directly with associations.
After 21 years of good and loyal service, Angelina Jolie renounces her role as special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the star wishing “work differentlyand on broader humanitarian issues. “After 20 years of working within the UN system, I feel it is time for me to work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations“, explained the actress, in a press release released by the UNHCR on Friday.
“Angelina Jolie has long been an important humanitarian partner of UNHCR. We are grateful for her decades of service, her commitment and the difference she has made for refugees and those forced to flee.said Filippo Grandi, head of UNHCR. Angelina Jolie – one of Hollywood’s most iconic faces – has completed more than 60 field assignments over the years, lending her stardom and certainty to the media in her travels to the refugee cause.
Recently, she traveled to Yemen and Burkina Faso with UNHCR to meet displaced people who are enduring “two of the most underfunded and underreported emergencies in the world“, Underlines the press release.
In June 2021 on International Refugee Day she pleaded for more solidarity and laid out what she sees as false excuses not to do more as she visited the Goudoubo camp in Burkina Faso. “It’s not that we’re at a breaking point – it’s already broken. The way we as an international community try to resolve conflict and insecurity is broken,” she had launched. “I have never been so concerned about the state of forced displacement around the world as I am today,” she had launched. Since then, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons has continued to increase, crossing the 100 million mark in mid-2022.
More than 53 million people have been forced to flee their homes in their country and 32.5 million have had to leave theirs to try to settle elsewhere. Angelina Jolie did not give details of her future humanitarian commitments. “I know the refugee cause will remain dear to her heart and I am sure she will bring the same passion and attention to a wider humanitarian portfolio.“said Filippo Grandi.
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