Angelina Jolie To UN: "We Are Failing to Save Lives"

Angelina Jolie pleaded with world powers on Friday to help the millions of Syrian refugees, sharply criticizing the U.N. Security Council for being paralyzed by its division over Syria's four-year conflict.

Jolie briefed the council as special envoy for the UN on refugee issues. Jolie, who said she has made 11 visits to Syrian refugees in the region since the crisis began in 2011, called strongly for the political will to act.

The U.N. estimates that about 3.8 million people have fled Syria and 7.6 million others have been displaced in the last four years. Some 220,000 Syrians have been killed since 2011, when peaceful protests erupted against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but gradually developed into a complex and bloody civil war.

"The problem is not lack of information. We know in excruciating detail what is happening in Aleppo, in Homs," Jolie said. "The problem is lack of political will. We cannot look at Syria and the evil that has risen from the ashes of indecision and think this is not the lowest point in the world's inability to protect and defend the innocent."

“Not enough people realize all that the United Nations does around the world,” Jolie said. "But all of this good is being undermined by the message being sent in Syria -- that laws can be flouted, chemical weapons can be used, hospitals can be bombed, aid can be withheld, and civilians starved, with impunity."

"We are standing by in Syria," she said, adding that the council's powers lie unused because its members cannot agree on how to address the conflict.

Jolie pleaded with the council to “work as one and end the conflict” by first imposing sanctions and an arms embargo on Syria. Russia, a top Syria ally and backed by China, has vetoed multiple council resolutions on Syria, including an effort last year to refer the situation there to the International Criminal Court. She said she would like to see the foreign minister of each of the 15 council members come to the table to negotiate a political solution.

In addition, Jolie spoke about the rising migrant crisis on the Mediterranean. Over the past three weeks more than 1,300 migrants fleeing Syria and other places have drowned at sea due to overcrowded boats that sink.

"It is sickening to see thousands of refugees drowning on the doorstep of the world's wealthiest continent," she said. "No one risks the lives of their children in this way except out of utter desperation."  

Here are a few ways you can help Syrian refugees and make a difference.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Angelina Jolie: Iraq, Syria Worse Than Ever Before

Back in January, Angelina Jolie traveled to Khanke, Iraq on an envoy with the United Nations Refugee Agency, and documented the horrific living conditions families and survivors are living under. Following her visit to an Iraqi refugee camp, she wrote an impassioned op-ed in the New York Times describing the devastation she witnessed and called for action to help the millions of displaced Syrians and Iraqis who no longer have a home. She urged world leaders to scale up relief efforts and do more to broker a ceasefire agreement in Syria.

“For many years I have visited camps, and every time, I sit in a tent and hear stories,” wrote the 39-year-old mother of six. “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.”

The UN has called Syria’s four-year civil war the “world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” with an estimated 220,000 killed and more than 12 million in need of aid. About 5.6 million of those are children.

Jolie went on to recount individual stories of abuse that she said exceeded the brutality of accounts she had heard on four previous visits to Iraq as the special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She described conversations with refugees who’ve been gravely affected by the instability brought on by ISIS.

“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?” Jolie asked. “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 “Unbroken” director warned that without an end to the war in Syria, the “spread of extremism, the surge in foreign fighters, the threat of new terrorism” will continue.

Jolie demanded additional funding to the United Nation’s humanitarian efforts and urged countries outside the Middle East to offer sanctuary and homes to the “most vulnerable refugees” who have been raped and tortured.   

“The international community as a whole has to find a path to a peace settlement. It is not enough to defend our values at home, in our newspapers and in our institutions. We also have to defend them in the refugee camps of the Middle East, and the ruined ghost towns of Syria,” she concluded.

Gain a better understanding of the background of the on-going war in Syria with these fast facts provided by CNN. BBC tells the story of the Syrian conflict in just eight short chapters.

Here are a few ways you can help and make a difference.

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