Angelina Jolie to Take On Larger Role for United Nations?
Angelina Jolie announced on Tuesday that she will likely expand her role in the United Nations, where she is currently a goodwill ambassador.
“We are looking at a few countries in the world," Jolie said, according to CBS. "We're hoping to discuss it in the next few weeks but we want to research it properly."
Jolie was meeting with the UNHCR, U.N. refugee agency, executive committee in Geneva on Tuesday to speak about the opportunity. Although the actress has been serving on the refugee agency for 10 years, Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said he would like Jolie to serve as "our special envoy mainly for the most dramatic refugee situations that require a lot of advocacy," Reuters has reported.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"We will be asking you to do more and more in this regard," Guterres told Jolie.
In an official statement from the UNHCR, the organization said Jolie’s role has yet to be finalized.
"A number of countries are under consideration and discussions are ongoing with relevant authorities regarding Ms. Jolie's additional role," the statement read.
Representative for Jolie echoed the same sentiments.
“There is no agreement,” the representatives said, according to Reuters. “Nothing is final."
Jolie has expressed the importance of her work with the UNHCR in the past.
"My personal experiences with UNHCR have been moving, sometimes heartbreaking, but always rewarding and unforgettable," she said.
At the UNHCR meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, the actress spoke about finding a solution to the famine issues taking place in the Horn of Africa.
“Today, three-quarters of a million people are at risk of death in the next four months in the Horn of Africa," she said. "The work we are doing needs to scale up to meet the needs of these individuals. How we continue to respond to this period of malnutrition and famine is going to define the work of those NGOs, governments, and international organizations working in the Horn of Africa. It will, quite starkly, determine whether a huge number of people live or die."
