Angelina Jolie Steps Down As UN Refugee Agency Envoy After 20 Years

Angelina Jolie has stepped down from her role as an ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency after more than 20 years.

Jolie and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released a joint statement Friday announcing the Oscar winner's decision. She has worked with the agency since 2001, and in April 2012 was appointed a special envoy.

The UNHCR described Jolie as "one of the most influential proponents of refugee rights" and praised her for using her powerful voice to build awareness and support for refugees and to call for urgent action and solutions for people who were forced to flee.

Jolie carried out over 60 field missions to countries like Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, and most recently, Ukraine to witness people's suffering and resilience. Just recently, she traveled with UNCHR to Yemen and Burkina Faso where they met displaced people "enduring two of the most underfunded and under-reported emergencies in the world."

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said: "Angelina Jolie has been an important humanitarian partner of UNHCR for very long. We are grateful for her decades of service, her commitment, and the difference she has made for refugees and people forced to flee."

"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. I look forward to our continued friendship," Grandi continued.

Jolie, for her part, said in the statement that she was "grateful for the privilege and opportunity" to have served as special envoy for the agency.

"I will continue to do everything in my power in the years to come to support refugees and other displaced people. After 20 years working within the UN system I feel it is time for me to work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations, and supporting their advocacy for solutions," Jolie added.

The "Salt" actress also shared more details about her decision and her future plans via an Instagram post.

"I believe in many things the UN does, particularly the lives it saves through emergency relief," Jolie wrote. "UNHCR is full of amazing people making a difference to people's lives every day. Refugees are the people I admire most in the world and I am dedicated to working with them for the rest of my life."

"I will be working now with organizations led by people most directly affected by conflict, that give the greatest voice to them," she continued.

Jolie's move came after she expressed her frustration with the U.N.'s inability to bring peace to a growing number of countries in conflict, according to CBS News.

"We live at a time of blatant disregard for the laws of war that forbid attacks on civilians ... We seem incapable of upholding minimum standards of humanity in many parts of the world," she said in her 2019 speech to the General Assembly.