Angelina Jolie’s Visit To Libya

Angelina Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR office in Geneva on August 27, 2001. Since then, Jolie has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees, war victims, starving and suffering nations, displaced persons in more than 20 most vulnerable countries. Being asked what she hoped to achieve, she said:

Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon.”

Angelina Jolie has goal to visit what she terms “forgotten emergencies.” She is not afraid of visiting places that are currently at war: she visited the Darfur region in 2004; she met with Sudanese refugees in Chad during its civil war in 2007; she visited Iraq during the Second Gulf War in 2007 and 2009; Afghanistan during the ongoing war in 2008 and 2011. And now she has visited Libya, the country of recent harsh conflict. She visited hospitals and met with local people.

It was Jolie’s first trip to Libya, but in June she visited Libyan refugees in Malta and on the Italian island of Lampedusa, and went to Tunisia during revolution.
On her Libya trip, she met representatives from UNHCR, Medecins Sans Frontieres and local non-governmental organisations bringing assistance to Libyans in Misrata and Tripoli.

I have come to Libya for a variety of reasons, to see a country in transition at every level and to witness efforts to fully realize the promise of the Arab Spring. The country faces a host of challenges, including internally displaced people, refugees, rule of law, security, sanitation, education, health and other humanitarian needs. All of these pieces must be delivered and coordinated properly in an environment of reconciliation and justice.”

She added:

I will be meeting with officials from all sides but above all, listening to the local people in the street. I am here to express solidarity with them. It is the work of rebuilding and recovery that will determine Libya’s future.”

Last Tuesday, October,4. Angelina at the annual meeting of UNHCR’s governing Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.

There’s no surprise that UNHCR highly appreciates what this amazing woman is doing for humanity.

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