Actor Charlize Theron Named UN Messenger Of Peace

Actor and advocate Charlize Theron named UN Messenger of Peace

14 November 2008 – The Academy Award-winning actor and activist Charlize Theron has been designated by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, tasked with promoting efforts to end violence against women.

Ms. Theron will join fellow actors George Clooney and Michael Douglas, as well as seven other internationally renowned individuals, as Messengers who advocate on behalf of the UN and focus global attention on its efforts to improve the lives of billions of people.

The actor has been recognized for her work focusing attention and mobilizing efforts on social issues, particularly in her native South Africa, where she has the Africa Outreach Project, which provides funding for a mobile health and computer clinic that visits high schools in rural communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

She will be officially inducted as a Messenger of Peace on Monday at ceremony led by the Deputy-Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, on behalf of the Secretary-General who will be in Geneva.

Current Messengers of Peace and their areas of focus are: Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan (Millennium Development Goals and hunger); conductor Daniel Barenboim (peace and tolerance); actor George Clooney (peacekeeping); author Paulo Coelho (intercultural dialogue); actor Michael Douglas (disarmament and peace and security); primatologist Jane Goodall (the environment); violinist Midori Goto (Millennium Development Goals and youth); cellist Yo-Yo Ma (youth); and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel (human rights and the Holocaust).

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