UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday announced the appointment of top Hollywood star Angelina Jolie as the Special Envoy of High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
Jolie, 36, was the UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador for the last 10 years, during which she conducted over 40 field visits to areas of refugee displacement around the world.
The UNHCR said Jolie's new role is expected to focus on large-scale crises resulting in the mass displacement of people. She will engage with relevant interlocutors on global displacement issue and represent the UNHCR and the High Commissioner at the diplomatic level, the agency said.
It is the first time the UN refugee agency has named a special envoy, said its spokesman Adrian Edwards. Elsewhere in the global body such posts are usually reserved for career diplomats or retired politicians.
"Her work does go substantially beyond what we would typically see as being the normal role of a goodwill ambassador," Edwards told reporters in Geneva. "I don't think you need a rocket scientist to see the benefits that she is bringing in terms of the attention that she is getting for the plight of the world's displaced."
Jolie has jetted the world on behalf of the organization over the past ten years, making high-profile visits to refugee camps in Pakistan, Iraq and Haiti, among other places. Apart from her time, Jolie has also given large personal donations to the organization, which relies entirely on voluntary contributions from governments, companies and individuals.
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