Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been a special envoy for the UN refugee agency for people in humanitarian crises for years. Now the actress is resigning from the organization. She wants to break new ground.
Actress Angelina Jolie has announced her resignation as special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). After 20 years of working within the UN system, she felt “it’s time for me to work in a different way, directly with refugees and organizations on the ground,” Jolie said. She will continue to do “everything in my power” to support refugees and other displaced people in the years to come.
The Oscar winner has worked with UNHCR since 2001 and has been a special envoy since 2012. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi expressed his gratitude for Jolie’s “decades of service”. He supports the 47-year-old’s decision to “change her commitment”. The organization named Jolie as one of its most influential advocates for refugee rights. The actress has worked “tirelessly” to bring stories of “both suffering and hope” to the world, the UNHCR said.
This year, Jolie visited Yemen, among other things, as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. With her visit, she wanted to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Arab country. She describes the civil war in Yemen as a “forgotten conflict”.
“The situation in this country is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world: one civilian was killed or injured every hour in 2022,” writes Angelina Jolie on Instagram. “A war-torn economy and over 20 million Yemenis dependent on humanitarian aid to survive”. Jolie posted a video with the text showing a bird’s-eye view of refugee camps. Pictures show destroyed houses and children in front of a blackboard. According to Jolie, two million young Yemenis are currently unable to go to school.
The picture gallery closes with a text that is supposed to classify Jolie’s mission in the times of the Ukraine war. “We must not selectively decide who deserves support and whose rights we defend,” it says. “Everyone deserves equal compassion. The lives of civilian victims of conflict are worth the same everywhere.”
