Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt statement as the conflict in Syria entered its fifth year
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- Published on Saturday, 14 March 2015 13:58
- Written by UNHCR
As the conflict in Syria entered its fifth year, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt said:"It is deeply alarming that the international response so clearly falls short of what is needed to end the conflict in Syria.People are entitled to feel bewildered and angry that the UN Security Council seems unable to respond to the worst crisis of the 21st century.It is shameful that even the basic demand for full humanitarian access has not been met. Meanwhile, neighbouring countries and international humanitarian agencies are being stretched beyond their limits.And it is sickening that crimes are being committed against the Syrian people on a daily basis with impunity.The failure to end this crisis diminishes all of us.I urge governments around the world to put aside their differences and mount a new attempt to solve the conflict politically.And I appeal for urgent steps to demonstrate that the international community is serious about accountability in Syria: to show that we will not turn a blind eye to war crimes, and that we will not fail refugees, the displaced, and the survivors."
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Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie let kids decide who will benefit from donations they make
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- Published on Monday, 02 March 2015 12:47
- Written by Times of India
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie let their six children help decide who will benefit from the huge donations made by their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, it has been revealed.The 13-year-old Maddox, 11-year-old Pax, 10-year-old Zahara, 8-year-old Shiloh and six-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne have already earmarked 22million pounds for worthy causes, the Daily Star reported.Shiloh recently suggested 1.2million pounds worth of donation to the Naankuse Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia, the African country in which Jolie gave birth to her.A source said that youngsters are banned from bragging about their donation s to their pals as Pitt and Jolie are trying to teach them it's better to give without seeking public credit.
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Angelina Jolie's new movie sheds light on Yazidi women's tragedy
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- Published on Wednesday, 25 February 2015 12:01
- Written by i24news
Jolie, who is also the Special Envoy to the UNHCR, produced three movies while visiting a Kurdish refugee camp.The third of three new short movies on the Yazidi genocide in Iraq, produced by Hollywood actress and director Angelina Jolie, was posted exclusively on the US news site The WorldPost on Tuesday.Jolie, who is also the Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, produced the documentaries for the UN agency during her visit to a Kurdish refugee camp in northern Iraq last month.The movies tell the tragic stories of Yazidi women captured by Islamic State militants in Iraq.The first two movies were published on The Guardian website on February 10."My daughter screamed ‘I will never go with you!’ "The last movie tells the story of Naseema, a 45-year-old Yazidi woman, who lost her husband, two daughters and three sons and was seized by the extremists last summer.The family was separated from each other in captivity. “As they were capturing us, my eldest daughter was screaming. She was shouting at them, ‘I will never go with you!’” Naseema remembers. "After they took her outside, they closed the door and she disappeared."Naseema endured terrible conditions during five months in captivity -- with little food or water -- and her children's health deteriorated, UNHCR told The WorldPost.Naseema was released in January before taking shelter in an abandoned building in northern Iraq.During her visit to Iraq, Jolie called for more international assistance to people displaced by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. "Nothing can prepare you for the horrific stories of these survivors of kidnap, abuse and exploitation, and to see how they cannot all get the urgent help they need and deserve," she said."Many of these innocent people have been uprooted multiple times as they seek safety amidst shifting front lines," she said. "The people I met today need to know that we will be with them."
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Angelina Jolie Opens Center to Combat War Zone Violence
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- Published on Wednesday, 11 February 2015 05:36
- Written by Just Jared
Angelina Jolie and England’s First Secretary of State William Hague have just opened the fist-ever academic center to combat violence against women in war zones across Europe.The center will be based at the London School of Economics in England, and will primarily focus on women in conflict-related issues and on broadening accountability to end rape and sex crimes in relation to war.“I am excited at the thought of all the students in years to come who will study in this new Centre. There is no stable future for a world in which crimes committed against women go unpunished,” Angelina said in a statement. “We need the next generation of educated youth with inquisitive minds and fresh energy, who are willing not only to sit in the classroom but to go out into the field and the courtrooms and to make a decisive difference.”
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Angelina Jolie Writes Impassioned New York Times Op-Ed About Iraq Trip, Syrian Refugees: "I Was Speechless"
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- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 05:45
- Written by Us magazine
Days after Angelina Jolie was photographed on a visit to northern Iraq, the Unbroken director has written an impassioned op-ed about her trip for the New York Times. In it, she describes the devastation she witnessed in refugee camps and calls for action to help the millions of displaced Syrians and Iraqis who no longer have a home."I have visited Iraq five times since 2007, and I have seen nothing like the suffering I'm witnessing now," she writes in the op-ed, published by the Times on Tuesday, Jan. 27."For many years I have visited camps, and every time, I sit in a tent and hear stories," she explains. "I try my best to give support. To say something that will show solidarity and give some kind of thoughtful guidance. On this trip I was speechless."As previously reported, the mom of six visited the Khanke Camp for Internally Displaced People on Sunday, Jan. 25. While there, she spoke with victims of ISIS — some of whom she describes in her Times op-ed."What do you say to the 13-year-old girl who describes the warehouses where she and the others lived and would be pulled out, three at a time, to be raped by the men?" the Maleficent star and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees questions. "When her brother found out, he killed himself."
She continues: "How can you speak when a woman your own age looks you in the eye and tells you that her whole family was killed in front of her, and that she now lives alone in a tent and has minimal food rations?" The piece goes on to detail the increasingly dire situation in Syria, noting that neighboring countries "have taken in nearly four million Syrian refugees, but they are reaching their limits."With that in mind, Jolie calls upon the international community to take action. "What does it say about our commitment to human rights and accountability that we seem to tolerate crimes against humanity happening in Syria and Iraq on a daily basis?" she asks. "It is not enough to defend our values at home, in our newspapers and in our institutions," she writes. "We also have to defend them in the refugee camps of the Middle East, and the ruined ghost towns of Syria." Read Jolie's op-ed in full at the New York Times.
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