Kidman to be UN Goodwill Ambassador

[alicia-w]

Australian actress Nicole Kidman will work to advance women's rights around the globe in her new role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.

Working with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Kidman, 38, will focus attention on "critical gender concerns such as ending violence against women," according to a Thursday press release from the U.N.

"Nicole joins UNIFEM as we are celebrating our 30th anniversary to help raise awareness on issues of pressing concern to women around the world," UNIFEM's Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said in a Thursday statement.

Kidman joins Princess Basma of Jordan -- who focuses her attention on the Middle East -- and Phoebe Asiyo, a member of the Kenyan Parliament, as a UNIFEM ambassador.

Leigh Pasqual, a UNIFEM spokeswoman, said that the only other high-profile ambassador the group has had was the actress Julie Andrews, who was in the post in the early 1990s.

Since the 1950s, U.N. agencies have enlisted the help of prominent personalities from the arts and sports worlds to highlight key issues.

Actress Angelina Jolie is serving as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.'s refugee agency, and has traveled widely promoting the agency's cause.

Kidman starred last year in the movie "The Interpreter," a thriller in which she played a U.N. interpreter caught up in a cloak-and-dagger assassination attempt.

Also on Thursday, Kidman was given Australia's highest civilian honor for her contribution to the performing arts and her charitable work. (See story.)

She was named a companion in the general division of the Order of Australia, one of more than 200 people honored to mark the Australia Day national holiday which celebrates the arrival in what is now Sydney Harbour of the first European settlers in 1788.

"It is an honor beyond any of my expectations and I thank Australia for giving it to me," Kidman said in a statement.