Actress Nicole Kidman answers a question as she is introduced as a Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations in New York January 26, 2006. Kidman will work with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which hopes to reduce violence against women around the world. (Xinhua/Reuters)

Actress Nicole Kidman listens to a question as she is introduced as a Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations in New York January 26, 2006. Kidman will work with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which hopes to reduce violence against women around the world. (Xinhua/Reuters)

    

Actress Nicole Kidman (L) is presented with a T-shirt by Noeleen Heyzer, the executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), after being introduced as a Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations in New York January 26, 2006.  (Xinhua/Reuters)

    BEIJING, Jan. 27 -- Hollywood star Nicole Kidman is to be named goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the fund said.

    The 38-year-old Australian will work with UNIFEM to advance women's rights and gender equality around the world, with a special focus on issues such as ending violence against women, it added.

    Since the early 1950s, the world body has enlisted the assistance of prominent figures from the worlds of art, music, film, sport and literature to turn the spotlight on humanitarian causes and U.N. programs as goodwill ambassadors and celebrity advocates.

    U.S. actress Angelina Jolie is currently serving as ambassador of UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

    Kidman recently starred in the political thriller ¡°The Interpreter,¡± shot at the United Nations' famed New York headquarters, as a U.N. interpreter who overhears an assassination plot and then becomes a target herself.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)