Opinion: Promoting human rights within the UN system – Celebrities as Goodwill Ambassadors

Introduction

What do Angelina Jolie, Muhammad Ali, and Whoopi Goldberg have in common? During the past few years they all have been appointed United Nations (UN) Goodwill Ambassadors promoting the UN and its various specialized agencies. These prominent personalities volunteer their time, talent and passion to raise awareness on the United Nations’ efforts to improve the lives of billions of people everywhere. This article in particular examines whether UN goodwill ambassadors can help raise public awareness for respecting human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

The first part of the article will focus on the importance, role and the main challenges of goodwill ambassadors within the UN system of human rights promotion.  The second part will deal with concrete examples of the achievements of UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie in the promotion of human rights in BiH. The case study is preceded by an examination of the regular activities of goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Angelina Jolie in the promotion of human rights in BiH, such as media activism, field trips, fundraising/donations and lobbying.

Examining the role of goodwill ambassadors in BiH

The UN plays a crucial role with regard to the protection of human rights globally and setting the standard for human rights. Although the efficiency of the UN’s human rights system is hindered – among other things – by the principle of sovereignty itself, by which state leaders can argue that legal actions against the human rights obligations are an unwanted interference in domestic policies. A solution needed to be found through “the politics of human rights promotion”. In any event, the international community rarely acts on human rights cases unless public opinion is engaged (Brown, 2004). According to Kofi Annan, this is exactly where goodwill ambassadors reach their “star quality”, through raising awareness among world audiences on human rights and by mobilizing the international community’s commitment to respect human rights issues as universal.[1]

So who are the UN goodwill ambassadors and how do they promote the UN’s agenda? According to the official definition of the UN, the UN goodwill ambassadors are: “[. . .] persons with widely recognized talent in the arts, sciences, literature, entertainment, sport or other field of public life [. . .] who demonstrate a strong desire to help mobilize public interest in, and support for, the purposes and principles of the UN, and who demonstrate the commitment and proven potential to reach out to significant audiences, including decision makers”.[2]

The UN goodwill ambassadors are all ’celebrity’ figures, well-known by the general public, who use their fame to draw attention to important UN issues worldwide. They are appointed through a “Letter of designation” signed by a designating UN Office, Fund or Program for a period of 2 years.[3] This way, celebrities are able to draw attention from the media and use their political access to advocate UN causes.

The UN goodwill ambassadors promote the UN’s agenda through a set of activities:

• Media activism: as high-profiled celebrities, UN goodwill ambassadors can attract large-scale media coverage which helps those in need gain assistance by the international Two examples are: Nicole Kidman’s call for monetary donations for humanitarian causes in Haiti[4] and Angelina Jolie’s media pressure on the reluctant governments during her visit to BiH. She said: “[. . .] the political leaders have shown a spirit of compromise in getting this far. Now it needs a little more urgency.”[5]
• Fundraising/donations: fundraising as an activity is related to obtaining more money to advocate UN causes and to help the people in For example, on 24 May 2010 UNIFEM’s goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman raised more than $ 175,000 at a UNIFEM fundraising event for programs that would advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in China.[6]
• Field trips: since being appointed as goodwill ambassador in 2001, Angelina Jolie has visited more than 20 countries and used a hands-on approach by going on numerous field trips to promote the work of UNHCR, specifically related to the world’s millions of displaced people and highlighting the refugees’ [7]
• Lobbying: this means that the UN goodwill ambassadors lobby On 21 October 2009, UNIFEM’s goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman spoke on behalf of the women who survived ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, urging the United States House of Representatives Sub-Committee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight to support the International Violence against Women Act which aims to end violence against women at the global level.[8]

The role and position of goodwill ambassadors gives them clear advantages of both credibility and ability to expand personal networks (Huliaras and Tzifakis, 2010). For example UNICEF goodwill ambassador Sofia Loren was criticized for turning up to the UNICEF appointment ceremony in her personal enjoyment of matching a brown Rolls Royce with her fur coat (Huliaras and Tzifakis, 2010). However, if we analyze Jolie’s personal humanitarian agenda from the Maddox Jolie – Pitt Foundation, which aims to achieve ‘the protection of the national forest, ending poverty, protecting the environment, establishing health care and educational opportunities’[9], we can see that it corresponds to her role as a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, with the shared aim of the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.

Therefore, we can assume that the motivation of UN goodwill ambassadors in the promotion of human rights, that is whether they primarily use this position for self-promotion or for the promotion of the UN agenda, is hard to prove, in addition to the fact that it is different for every UN goodwill ambassador. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to ask: how successful are UN goodwill ambassadors in the promotion of human rights worldwide? The impact of celebrity activism is particularly effective in raising public awareness and fundraising as ’soft news’ such as the Oprah Winfrey Show and David Letterman’s Late Show appeared. However, political lobbying is not quite as impressive because when celebrities call for ’more attention’ to Africa, it does not radically change policies nor does it question the structure of the global economic system (Huliaras and Tzifakis, 2010).

However, some scholars argue that the impact of UN goodwill ambassadors is not impressive: their role is primarily the promotion of the UN’s human rights agenda rather than changing the structure of the global economic system. Also, as UN representatives, they are facing numerous challenges such as different governments, economic systems, political cultures and human rights situations within countries, and because of these abovementioned reasons their real role as UN goodwill ambassadors significantly varies and has different results in these countries.

  The civil war in BiH from 1992 – 1995 displaced some 2,2 million people. UNHCR was given a mandate by the UN General Assembly to deal with migration problems. Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the war and until Jolie’s first field trip to BiH, durable solutions were still needed for 113,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 7,000 refugees from Croatia (mainly Croatian Serbs) in BiH.[10] So, can UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie raise public awareness to respect human rights in BiH on the basis of the aforementioned set of goodwill ambassador regular activities?

Media activism

Jolie highlighted the refugees and IDPs by saying: “After seeing these people and hearing their stories, I cannot overemphasize the need to focus on the well-being of the most vulnerable individuals of the population by ending displacement and ensuring quality of life, we can help to promote progress and long-term stability.“[11] Jolie also raised the issue of the responsibility of the Bosnian authorities pointing out that she hopes: “[…] to return to this beautiful country soon and meet with political representatives to further discuss the solutions that are so badly required.“[12]

Angelina Jolie can influence public opinion, raising awareness on this issue through the media (radio, TV, internet, and so on), spreading the idea of the importance of human rights values and the UNHCR agenda among the domestic and global public opinion, in her capacity as celebrity. In this regard, everyone can be made aware of what is going on in BiH. For example, 14 years after the war the state officials still do not care about the difficult situation of refugees in the collective refugee camp in Rogatica, or about the severely disadvantaged position of returnees to Visegrad.

Fundraising/donations

Jolie can also help the refugees financially. UNHCR representative in BiH Naveed Hussain on 7 October 2010: “She [Jolie] has helped already. […] We are now in the situation to mobilize financial resources and to close the collective Center in Rogatica. We are going to provide residential units.”[13] The local people, in Jolie’s honor, informally call the residential unit the “Villa Jolie”.[14]

Field-trips

On 6 April 2010, Jolie came to BiH to highlight the suffering of the refugees and the IDPs in the town of Gorazde, a village near Visegrad and the town of Rogatica. Jolie witnessed difficult living conditions of refugees in these collective centers such as the lack of running water. Then, Jolie’s second trip to BiH was on 20 August 2010, when she met with Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic, members of the BiH tripartite Presidency, to discuss IDPs and the problems faced by refugee returnees.

If we take into account that Jolie came to BiH twice, because of the refugees and IDPs, we can assume that the nature of her involvement is actually long-term and systematically generating better results, and it shows us Jolie’s serious or systematic commitment to help those in need.

 Lobbying

On 21 August 2010, Jolie met members of the Presidency of BiH to discuss ways to help thousands of returning war refugees. The main topic of the meetings was the implementation of the Revised Strategy for the Implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which sets practical steps by the Bosnian Government to assist the integration of refugees and IDPs in local communities. Revised strategy was adopted earlier, on 24 June 2010, by BiH’s Upper House of Parliament.[15] UNHCR in BiH Naveed Hussain on 7 October 2010: “ She [Jolie] has helped already. Revised strategy is adopted; I think it has been contributed by her visit.”[16] After the meeting, Silajdzic said Jolie showed interest in supporting education and other projects: “We presented her what we could do for people outside the budget with the support of the good friends, and we talked about the project, a large educational center in BiH. We agreed that education is the highest possible priority and that we will work together with our common friends to accomplish that goal. “[17]

Even though there is no reliable evidence that the Revised strategy was adopted because of Jolie’s engagement in BiH, the implementation of the Revised Strategy of Annex VII was very slow, due to the lack of political will and ethno-national divisions that are defining the political ambient in BiH, the weak welfare system and complex political system in BiH.

Conclusion

The UN goodwill ambassadors can impact reluctant governments to respect human rights within their territories, raising issues of human rights violations among the world audience through the set of regular goodwill ambassador activities, and to improve living conditions for those in need. However, celebrities, as well as UN goodwill ambassadors, actually advocate humanitarian causes for the sake of self-promotion, with no substantial results in lobbying except in raising public awareness and fundraising. Their real role as UN goodwill ambassadors is particularly different, and at the same time it has different results in these countries. In addition, Jolie’s humanitarian agenda and her role as UN goodwill ambassador in over 20 countries truly compliment her role and commitment to human rights advocacy.

  If we take into consideration that Jolie had two field trips to BiH, that she highlighted the most vulnerable by her statements about their bad situation, the closure of the collective center in Rogatica, and that she used her celebrity status as the UN Goodwill ambassador to lobby the BiH government for those in need, we can claim that the UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie helped in raising public awareness for respecting human rights in BiH on the basis of the set of goodwill ambassador regular activities.

References

Brown, C., Human Rights: The Politics of Human Rights Promotion, in Baylis, J., Smith, S., and Owens, P. (eds), The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 699-701.

Chakrabarti, O., “UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman and Executive Director Inés Alberdi in Haiti Stress Women’s Equality as Central for Recovery,” 30 Jul. 2010,  <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1144>.

Chakrabarti, O., “UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman Raises more than US$175,000 for UNIFEM’s Programmes in China,” 20 May 2010,  <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1090>.

Huliaras, A. and Tzifakis, N., Celebrity Activism in International Relations: In Search of a Framework for Analysis’, Global Society, (2010) 2, pp. 255-274.

Kamenica, E., “Naveed Hussain, predstavnik UNHCR-a za BiH: Angelinina Pomoć za Rogaticu,” Oslobođenje, 7 Oct. 2010, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/38888346/Oslobo%C4%91enje-broj-22910-7-10-2010>

Keserovic, A., “Problemi s useljenjem u zgradu Andjeline Djoli: Nacelnik Rogatice istjeruje starice,” Dnevni Avaz, 17 Oct. 2010, <http://www.idoc.ba/digitalarchive/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=serve&elementid=823739>

MJP Asia, “Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation,” 14 February 2012,  <http://www.mjpasia.org/>.

Moje Zdravlje, “Usvojena revidirana strategija Aneksa VII,“ 24 June 2010, <http://www.mojezdravlje.ba/novost/47248/usvojena-revidirana-strategija-aneksa-vii>.

UN, “Guidelines for the designation of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace,” 14 Feb. 2010, <http://www.un.org.ua/files/guidelines_gwa.pdf >.

UNHCR “Angelina Jolie Field Missions”, 27 Sep. 2011, <http://www.unhcr.org/4399624c2.html>.

UNHCR, “Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia,” 6 Apr. 2010, <http://www.unhcr.org/4bbb422512.html>.

UNHCR, “The UN Refuge Agency: What We Do? Help the Uprooted and Statless,“ 20 Feb. 2010, <http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646cbf.html>.

UNHCR, “UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie supports displaced during visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” 21 Aug. 2010,  <http://www.unhcr.org/4c7278346.html>.

UNIFEM, “Testimony of Nicole Kidman on International Violence against Women: Stories and Solutions,” 21 Oct. 2009,  <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=957>.

UNIS, “UN Messengers of Peace, Goodwill Ambassadors Share Experiences, as Two-Day Meeting on Celebrity Advocacy Opens,” United Nations Information Service, 19 Jun. 2001,  <http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2002/pi1427.html>.

“Angelina Jolie u Predsjedništvu BiH,“ <http://zabava.hrt.hr/angelina-jolie-u-predsjednistvu-bih>.

 

[1] UNIS, “UN Messengers of Peace, Goodwill Ambassadors Share Experiences, as Two-Day Meeting on Celebrity Advocacy Opens,” 19. Jun.. 2002 <http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2002/pi1427.html>.  [Accessed on 25 August 2010]

[2] UN, “Guidelines for the designation of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace,” 14 Feb. 2012 <http://www.un.org.ua/files/guidelines_gwa.pdf>. [Accessed on 15 September 2010]

[3] Ibid.

[4] UNIFEM, “UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman and Executive Director Inés Alberdi in Haiti Stress Women’s Equality as Central for Recovery,” 30 Jul. 2010 <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1144>. [Accessed on 9 October 2010]

[5] UNHCR, “UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie supports displaced during visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” 21 Aug. 2010 <http://www.unhcr.org/4c7278346.html>.  [Accessed on 15 September 2010]

[6] UNIFEM, “UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman Raises more than US$175,000 for UNIFEM’s Programmes in China,” 20 May 2010 <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1090>. [Accessed on 9 October 2010]

[7] UNHCR, “Angelina Jolie Field Missions,” 27 Sep. 2011 <http://www.unhcr.org/4399624c2.html>. [Accessed on 1 October 2010]

[8] UNIFEM, “Testimony of Nicole Kidman on International Violence against Women: Stories and Solutions,” 21 Oct. 2010 <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=957>. [Accessed on 25 October 2010]

[9] MJP Asia, “Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation,” 14 Feb. 2012 <http://www.mjpasia.org/>. [Accessed on 10 July 2012]

[10]UNHCR, “Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia,” 6 Apr. 2010 <http://www.unhcr.org/4bbb422512.html>. [Accessed on 23 September 2010]

[11] “Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia,” <http://www.unhcr.org/4bbb422512.html>, [Accessed on 26 September 2010]

[12] Ibid.

[13] Kamenica, E., “Naveed Hussain, predstavnik UNHCR-a za BiH: Angelinina Pomoć za Rogaticu,” Oslobođenje, 07 Oct. 2010 < http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/index.php?id=2970>. [Accessed on 8 October 2010]

[14] Keserovic, A., “Problemi s useljenjem u zgradu Andjeline Djoli: Nacelnik Rogatice istjeruje starice,” Dnevni Avaz, 17 Oct. 2011 <http://www.idoc.ba/digitalarchive/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=serve&elementid=823739>. [Accessed on 25 October 2011]

[15] Moje Zdravvlje, “Usvojena revidirana strategija Aneksa VII,” 24 June 2010 <http://www.mojezdravlje.ba/novost/47248/usvojena-revidirana-strategija-aneksa-vii>. [Accessed on 7 October 2010]

[16] Kamenica, E. “Naveed Hussain, predstavnik UNHCR-a za BiH: Angelinina Pomoć za Rogaticu,” Oslobođenje, 07 Oct. 2010 <http://www.scribd.com/doc/38888346/Oslobo%C4%91enje-broj-22910-7-10-2010>. [Accessed on 8 October 2010]

[17] “Angelina Jolie u Predsjedništvu BiH,”21 Aug. 2010 <http://zabava.hrt.hr/angelina-jolie-u-predsjednistvu-bih>. [Accessed on 29 September 2010]