Angelina Jolie and the United Nations’ refugee agency are parting ways after more than two decades.
In a joint statement issued Friday, the actress, 47, and the agency announced she was ‘moving on’ from her role as the agency’s special envoy ‘to engage on a broader set of humanitarian and human rights issues.’
Jolie, whose ex Brad Pitt was seen attending the Babylon premiere Thursday with new love Ines de Ramon, said; ‘I will continue to do everything in my power in the years to come to support refugees and other displaced people.’
She added she felt it was time ‘to work differently’ by directly engaging with refugees and local organizations.
Jolie first started working with the U.N. refugee agency in 2001 and was appointed its special envoy in 2012 – she was among the most high-profile of the organization’s ambassadors.
The star ‘carried out more than 60 field missions to bear witness to stories of suffering as well as hope and resilience’, said the U.N, and had most recently traveled to Burkina Faso.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said: ‘After a long and successful time with UNHCR, I appreciate her desire to shift her engagement and support her decision.
‘I know the refugee cause will remain close to her heart, and I am certain she will bring the same passion and attention to a wider humanitarian portfolio.’
In an opinion piece published in The Guardian last month, Jolie alluded to frustration with the lack of global progress in ending sexual violence in conflict.
‘We meet and discuss these horrors and agree that they should never be allowed to happen again. We promise to draw – and to hold – that line. But when it comes to hard choices about how to implement these promises, we run into the same problems time and again,’ she wrote, specifically calling out U.N. Security Council members for ‘abusing their veto power.’
Jolie began visiting refugee camps in 2001, and was appointed as a UNHCR goodwill ambassador that same year. At the time, the then-high commissioner said he hoped the then-26-year-old actress could direct young people’s attention to the plight of refugees.
In response to a request for additional comment, the agency declined to offer further details, including whether they would appoint another special envoy to replace Jolie.
Meanwhile Angelina’s split from Brad has been acrimonious, as the pair have been battling over custody of their six kids and business ventures.
Brad and Angelina met in 2005 on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith, playing a bored married couple who discover they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill one another. At the time he was married to Aniston.
Brad and Angie married at Chateau Miraval in 2014 and parented six kids – three biological and three adopted – who are now aged between 14 and 21.
Brad and Angie were ruled legally single in 2019 – but are still sorting out their labyrinthine financial affairs and custody arrangements to this day.
They have been locked in a legal battle of the Chateau Miraval, a 35-room estate and celebrated vineyard in the south of France that Pitt and Jolie bought for $60 million in 2011.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
