Angelina Jolie joins 'TIME' as a Contributing Editor; first piece is titled “What We Owe Refugees”

getty_angelina_jolie_06192019

Photo by Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Oscar-winning actress, director, and United Nations Ambassador Angelina Jolie now has another title: Contributing Editor for TIME magazine.

Jolie’s experience as a humanitarian and philanthropist will inform her monthly pieces: She’ll contribute articles “focusing primarily on displacement, conflict and human rights,” according to the magazine.

To that end, her first piece — appearing in Friday’s issue of the magazine — is called “What We Owe Refugees.” It sheds light on the plight of some 70 million people displaced from their homes by poverty, famine, and war.

She explains, “As we mark World Refugee Day on June 20, it is an illusion to think that any country can retreat behind its borders and simply hope the problem will go away. We need leadership and effective diplomacy. We need to focus on long-term peace based on justice, rights and accountability to enable refugees to return home.”

Jolie says that too often, countries use aid as a substitute for effective policies and diplomacy.  She urges a “harder course of action,” which she explains is, “the only one that will make a difference.”

“We need to focus on long-term peace based on justice, rights and accountability to enable refugees to return home,” she says, and warns, “The distance between us and the refugees of the past is shorter than we think.”

Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.