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International Rescue Committee to honour UN refugee official, Angelina Jolie

International Rescue Committee to honour UN refugee official, Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie at a camp in Kenya (file photo)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and internationally renown actress Angelina Jolie, one of his agency's most active supporters, will receive the International Rescue Committee's annual Freedom Award for 2007 in New York tomorrow.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and internationally renown actress Angelina Jolie, one of his agency's most active supporters, will receive the International Rescue Committee's annual Freedom Award for 2007 in New York tomorrow.

The award being given to UNHCR and its Goodwill Ambassador recognizes extraordinary contributions to the cause of refugees and human freedom has previously been given to another UN High Commissioner for Refugees – Sadako Ogata, in 1995.

Other Freedom Award winners include Winston Churchill (1958); George Soros (1993); Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (1995); Vaclav Havel (2003); and former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton (2006).

The IRC has for many years been UNHCR's largest NGO partner.