UN Goodwill Ambassador Mira Sorvino recognized for human trafficking work
Recognizing her real-life role in the fight against human trafficking, the Academy Award winning actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador, Mira Sorvino, was awarded the Global Advocate of the Year Award by the UN press corps at an event in New York on Wednesday night.
Recognizing her real-life role in the fight against human trafficking, the Academy Award winning actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador, Mira Sorvino, was awarded the Global Advocate of the Year Award by the UN press corps at an event in New York on Wednesday night.
Awarded by the UN Correspondents Association and presented by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Award recognizes Ms. Sorvino, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking, for her work in raising awareness about a crime that has become one of today's top concerns, affecting the lives of some 2.4 million people across the world.
“All over the world, momentum is growing to stop this shameful violation of human rights and human dignity,” the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, said at the award’s presentation ceremony. “Mira Sorvino has made an enormous contribution to this momentum. Her work onscreen and off has lent a voice to the voiceless.”
The American star, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite in 1995, received a Golden Globe nomination for her powerful performance in the miniseries Human Trafficking, about the plight of three girls trafficked for sexual purposes.
She has been a UNODC Goodwill Ambassador since February 2009, and earlier this year took part in consultations with Member States on the newly adopted UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Human Trafficking.
“Both with UNODC and on her own, Mira has met with countless victims of trafficking, and she uses her platform as a global personality to tell their powerful stories,” Mr. Fedotov said. “We are grateful for Mira's extraordinary commitment and her invaluable assistance to UNODC in our efforts to fight human trafficking.”
Ms. Sorvino has been the face of UNODC's Blue Heart campaign to end human trafficking at its two recent launches in Spain and Mexico. She also attended the recent Luxor International Forum against Human Trafficking, participated with Mr. Ban in the 2010 Global Creative Forum in Los Angeles, where she raised awareness of the need to prioritize efforts to fight trafficking, and has represented UNODC at the Clinton Global Initiative.