By Oyintari Ben
After serving as a special envoy for the UNHCR for more than 20 years, Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie announced her resignation on Friday in a joint statement with the organization.
In her statement, Jolie said she was “moving on” and that she would “engage in a larger set of humanitarian and human rights causes.”
Jolie joined the organization in 2001 and was appointed as its special envoy in 2012. According to the news release, she has participated in more than 60 “field missions to bear witness to stories of pain as well as hope and perseverance.”
Jolie stated that she wished to collaborate more closely with neighbourhood organizations and refugees.
In the years to come, she promised, “I will continue to do everything I can to support refugees and other displaced people.”
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed appreciation for Jolie’s efforts.
Grandi stated, “I appreciate her wish to move her involvement and support her decision after a long and successful career with UNHCR.”I am confident she will bring the same enthusiasm and care to a bigger humanitarian portfolio, and I know the refugee cause will remain close to her heart.
Jolie has met with displaced individuals in Ukraine and Yemen this year alone while serving as a special envoy. With 80% of them residing in developing nations, the UNHCR estimates that an unprecedented 100 million people are being displaced due to violence, conflict, and persecution worldwide.
Jolie has previously berated the UN for making little progress in important areas.
She once called the group “imperfect” in a speech, but just last month she wrote that it keeps running across the same obstacles as it attempts to address topics like violence against women.
She specifically criticized the UN Security Council members for abusing their veto authority. She has, however, also argued in favour of backing the organization as a whole.
Jolie stated that over the past 20 years she has witnessed government “give up on diplomacy” while the poorest are left “doing the most to support the refugees” in an interview with the Press from last year.
