Press conference by unifem, introducing goodwill ambassador nicole kidman

Introduced today at a Headquarters press conference as “perhaps the most famous interpreter the United Nations has ever known”, Nicole Kidman, the new Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said it had taken her many years to find something she wanted to do, and having found it, she could put her heart and her passion behind a lifelong commitment.

She said:  “When you’ve been given a lot in life, it’s very much your duty to find the places where you can give back.  It’s so small, what you can contribute, but the individual taking a responsibility in any way they can and contributing in any way they can to taking care of each other in this world is important, and it starts with each and every one of us.”

The UNIFEM is the women’s Fund at the United Nations.  Established in 1976, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women’s empowerment and gender equality.  The Fund’s work touches the lives of women and girls in more than 100 countries.  It also helps make women’s voices heard at the United Nations by highlighting critical issues and advocating for the implementing of existing commitments made to women.  The post of Goodwill Ambassador was reserved for exceptional individuals committed to positive change.  Others include Princess Basma of Jordan and Phoebe Asiyo of Kenya.

The Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, said everyone was gathered here today because Ms. Kidman had agreed to become a different kind of interpreter –- an interpreter of a United Nations message:  that it would not be possible to achieve the Organization’s human development ambitions until women were able to participate fully in the process.  He was very pleased that Ms. Kidman had accepted the UNIFEM invitation to become a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.  But, that was not the only recognition she had received today.  Today was Australia’s national day, and she had been given her country’s highest honour –- the Order of Australia.

Describing Ms. Kidman as a “profound and charismatic” artist, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, noted that the actress was joining the Fund during its thirtieth anniversary.  Her role was to raise awareness of the pressing issues facing women worldwide and to amplify the message that women’s contributions were essential to development and the building of just and peaceful societies.  The two women had discussed how Ms. Kidman could lend her voice and visibility and connections to making a difference to women worldwide and to the state of the world, as a whole.  Ms. Heyzer welcomed Ms. Kidman as a “sister” in the commitment to women around the globe.

Progress towards achieving women’s equality was too slow, and violence against them was still a pandemic in so many parts of the world, Ms. Heyzer said.  The pace of progress was too slow when HIV/AIDS still had a woman’s face, and a younger and younger woman’s face and where more and more women were trafficked across borders, and where poverty was “feminized”.  Ms. Kidman would pick up some of those issues, especially to end violence against women, which, in many parts of the world, was a silent issue shrouded with shame and fear.  She would make sure that “invisible” became “visible” and that UNIFEM strategies would get the necessary support.  The UNIFEM-managed United Nations trust fund to help eradicate violence against women was under-resourced.  Their work together began only yesterday, but Ms. Heyzer knew Ms. Kidman would make a profound difference.

Ms. Kidman said she was honoured at the opportunity, and she looked forward to a very committed, long-term relationship.  She was not pretending to be an expert; she was here to learn and to lend her support to and make visible the very real and immediate problems, along with the Fund’s successful strategies.  She first became aware of UNIFEM work through her mother, who was listening to a BBC programme about the work the Fund was doing in Cambodia to create economic opportunities for women in Cambodia by reviving silk-weaving as an alternative to being forced into exploitation, such as human trafficking.  And, that really moved her.  She tracked down Ms. Heyzer and told her she would very much like to help and be involved in any way that she could.  After many conversations, “here we are, and I hope that this will be a lifelong commitment for me”.

She said she was going to spend the year educating herself further by travelling with Ms. Heyzer and meeting with the women and understanding the issues they faced.  Possible trips could include visits to the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan, and Cambodia, and that was just the beginning.  She was especially interested in giving visibility to the pandemic of violence against women.  She would visit the projects UNIFEM had set up to see, first-hand, the strategies at work.  She hoped that, over the years, the media would continue to lend its support and visibility to the effort.

To a series of questions about her priorities, Ms. Kidman said she did not yet have a priority and was putting herself in Ms. Heyzer’s hands.  She wanted to see first-hand what was happening around the world.  Ultimately, as she gained more and more information, a priority would emerge, but she was very much under the Organization’s guidance.

Asked if the call from her mother and the filming of The Interpreter at the United Nations coincided and contributed to her decision to become a Goodwill Ambassador, Ms. Kidman said it was probably during the end of the filming that her mother told her about UNIFEM.  Her mother’s interest in the programme probably flowed from the fact that Ms. Kidman was working on the film.  So, the filming here, her mother -– all of those things had come together to lead her towards that.

After a correspondent admitted his admiration for Ms. Kidman’s work, she followed with:  “I have to say, compared to the Cannes Film Festival, this is a very sedate crowd.”

To a question about domestic violence, she said much of her initial work would be about hearing stories and then publicizing them.  She did a film, The Human Stain, where she met with a lot of abused women in shelters in the United States.  Many of the stories were so disturbing.  That was just another of the layers that led her to a position like this.

Regarding her views on abortion, she said she did not believe her work would address that question initially, and, besides, those were her private beliefs.  At this stage, she was here to work for an Organization, so her personal beliefs should not come into it.  She was here to help disseminate information.  So many people walked around not really knowing what was going on.  So many of her friends had said, “It’s so bleak, why would you take that on, nothing ever really comes of it.”  But, Ms. Heyzer felt that changes were possible.  There was enormous possibility to change the world, and everyone had the opportunity to contribute to that in a very small way.

Asked whether she would bring her children, she said she had a daughter and a son, and her son was African-American.  She hoped to bring them.  In Australia, she had visited the oncology wards, to which she had taken her daughter.  Her 11-year old son was about to make some of his own such trips.  She hoped they would step into their responsibility as privileged children.

She hoped that, for the rest of her life, she did not become desensitized.  She also hoped she would want to get more and more involved.  Already, she was “chomping at the bit” and “ready to go”.  But, she did not want to do that in a “superficial or glib” way; she wanted to have the knowledge behind her.  Despite the many problems globally, she sensed a willingness to help and to learn.

To a question about a book being written in which her parenting was criticized, Ms. Kidman said she had never met the author, but she hoped she was a mother who would, over a lifetime, be loved by her children and have them receive her unconditional love.

She told a story about a very sick Australian child here in the United States, about whom she had read in the newspaper.  Upon meeting him, he told her he liked her, but he was far more interested in Angelina Jolie.  She called her up and asked her to meet him and take a photograph with him.  Hopefully, the two women would continue to help each other out.  That was what it was all about.

As to what inspired her, she said her parents had a very strong social conscience.  Her house was always full, and her mom was always the one who offered to help, and she thought that had had a lasting effect on her.  She loved that she had been raised that way, and she hoped to continue to have her home that way.

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For information media • not an official record