(Geneva) After 21 years of good and loyal service, Angelina Jolie renounces her role as special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the star wishing to “work differently” and on broader humanitarian issues.
“After 20 years of working within the United Nations system, I feel it’s time for me to work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations,” the actress said in a statement. released by 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 people 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 attracting media attention in her travels to the refugee cause. She was appointed UNHCR Special Envoy in 2012.
Recently, she traveled to Yemen and Burkina Faso with UNHCR to meet with displaced people enduring “two of the most underfunded and underreported emergencies in the world”, the statement said.
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 said.
“I have never been more concerned about the state of forced displacement in the world than today,” she said. 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.
Mme Jolie did not give details of her future humanitarian commitments.
“I know the refugee cause will remain close to her heart and I am sure she will bring the same passion and attention to a broader humanitarian portfolio,” Grandi said.