Angelina Jolie in Libya
U.S. actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie receives a plaque from residents at her hotel in Misrata during her visit to the war-torn city October 12, 2011. Jolie on Wednesday praised Libyans' "extraordinary" participation in their homegrown revolution, and said she stood in solidarity with the country as it sought to become a nation of laws Reuters

Angelina Jolie is in Libya Wednesday, where she is meeting with refugees of the ongoing Libyan revolution, as well as the county's new, post-Moammer Gadhafi leadership.

Jolie, who is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and has worked with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the past, is visiting on her own.

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 actress told Reuters.

I'm also here on behalf of the Libyan people to show them solidarity. I think this revolution on behalf of human rights, which is what I feel these people really have been doing and what they have pushed for, and to help them to implement these new laws and help them with the future of their country.

Jolie spent the first day of her visit in Misrata, Liyba's third largest city, which was captured by rebels in May. The Battle of Misrata, during which National Transitional Council fighters held the city of weeks as pro-Gadhafi troops shelled them with rockets and artillery. The actress and humanitarian will tour the city as well as meet with Doctors Without Borders and other agencies providing aid to refugees and the wounded.

This country is going through so much. It's in transition on so many levels.... It's not just food, it's not just sanitary conditions or the new laws that need to be put into place. It's all of these things at once, she said.

Since joining up with the United Nations in 2001, Jolie has gone on a number of field missions to meet with refugees and internally displaced persons in more than 20 countries, including the Darfur region of Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

What's extraordinary is that a lot of the people who are part of the solution and are working in positions of even military, and you find that just before the revolution they had retired, or were running restaurants or were selling baby clothes, Jolie told reporters about the Libyan people.

They've all quit their jobs and they are all working here now on behalf of their country.

United nations Afghanistan Iraq Human rights