Angelina Jolie, the actress and United Nations goodwill ambassador, was in the capital Saturday for meetings with President René Préval.

Jolie, who is well known for her interest in children, was on a fact-finding trip to learn more about the situation of Haiti’s children, particularly those left homeless and orphaned by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. She met judges, lawyers, ministry of social affairs officials and other actors involved in children’s issues to get a sense of the problem.

Friday, she visited the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) log base, where she was the star attraction at a reception.

There were no Brad Pitt sightings.

Source: Miami Herald

Angelina has written an article for Time magazine about the latest case against Sudan’s president Omar al Bashir who has been indicted on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. You can read a short except below.

Friday is a defining moment in the history of justice. The members of the United Nations Security Council will be presented with the results of the International Criminal Court's Darfur investigation — an investigation that they requested. Their response will determine whether there is going to be an international standard of justice that holds perpetrators accountable for the worst crimes in the world.

The evidence the prosecutor has presented is clear and compelling. Millions of people have been displaced; hundreds of thousands have been killed and, at the center of it all stands Sudanese President Omar al Bashir who has been indicted on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. (See pictures of Darfur in crisis.) Read the rest of this entry…

An article Angelina wrote herself and it’s a very good article and should interest all humans.

The World in 2008
November 2007
-Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie, goodwill ambassador to the UNHCR, hopes for progress in bringing war criminals to justice

On a recent mission for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, I had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp in Chad just across the border with Sudan. Sitting with a group of refugees, I asked them what they needed. These were people who had seen family members killed, neighbours raped, their villages burned and looted, their entire communities driven from their land. So it was no surprise when people began listing the things that could improve their lives just a little bit. Better tents, said one; better access to medical facilities, said another. But then a teenage boy raised his hand and said, with powerful simplicity, “Nous voulons un procès.” We want a trial.

Read article at original source or at Team Jolie.

ANGELINA JOLIE is calling for world leaders to persecute those who commit crimes against humanity, because it is the only way to hold people to account.

The Hollywood actress and human rights campaigner made her plea to international governments in a new article for The Economist magazine, entitled The World in 2008, in which she urged tougher action against rogue leaders.

And Jolie, a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), hopes to see something done soon to combat the ongoing genocide in Darfur, western Sudan. She has visited neighbouring Chad twice once in 2003 and again earlier this year (07) – to speak to victims of the Sudanese atrocity and highlight their cause.

Writing in The Economist magazine, she says, “Accountability is perhaps the only force powerful enough to break the cycle of violence and retribution that marks so many conflicts.

“Through accountability we can begin the process of righting past wrongs, and even change the behaviour of some of the world’s worst criminals.

“I hope that the Sudanese government will hand over the government minister and the Janjaweed militia leader who have been indicted for war crimes (by the International Criminal Court in The Hague), and that the teenager I met in Chad will get the trial he seeks.

“I hope that those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur will be held to account, not only for that young man’s sake, but for the world’s.”