© UNHCR/G. Perez Cate Blanchett in a refugee camp in Bangladesh where thousands of exiles from Myanmar have found shelter Cate Blanchett: Ten Years of Refugee Protection Refugees and migrants
Award-winning actress and producer Cate Blanchett has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for 10 years. During this time, she managed to meet hundreds of refugees around the world and draw attention to their stories and problems.
Ten years of work with the Refugee Agency
During 10 years of work with UNHCR, two-time Oscar winner, actress and producer Cate Blanchett met with refugees and internally displaced persons in Jordan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Niger, South Sudan and Brazil.
Their stories of fleeing war, violence and climate disasters, as well as their desire to rebuild their lives and return home, continue to inspire her work in support of refugees.
“Meeting refugees around the world and hearing their personal stories of loss, hope, survival and overcoming adversity is a tremendous honor and the most important part of my work with UNHCR,” she said Blanchett.
“My commitment to this work remains the same today as it was ten years ago. “I want to do everything possible to ensure that these people’s stories are heard and that no one can say: ‘We didn’t know about this,’” she added.The actress uses her international fame to draw attention to refugee issues and advocate for them – be it in media interviews, as part of the Blue Ribbon Initiative, a UNHCR campaign that hosts major international ceremonies, or, as last year, when she presented Pope Leo XIV with a bracelet created by refugee craftsmen.
Much of her work takes place outside the public space. Through meetings with political leaders, executives of major companies and philanthropists, Blanchett helped raise significant funds in support of refugees.
Performances on the world stage
At the same time, the actress repeatedly spoke publicly in support of refugees. Thus, in 2018, after a meeting with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, she spoke at the UN Security Council in New York, and in 2023 she appealed to the European Parliament to pursue more humane asylum policies. Later that year, she opened the second Global Forum on Refugee Issues in Geneva.
It was there that Blanchett developed the idea of the Displacement Film Fund, designed to draw the attention of the film industry to the problems of forced displacement population.
The Fund supports the work of refugee directors, as well as other authors who tell stories about the lives of internally displaced persons. The foundation will announce a new list of grant recipients later this month at the Cannes Film Festival.