Angelina Jolie has filmed a public service announcement to honor World Refugee Day, which is June 20th. It’s a brief, 30-second ad, in which Angelina speaks over images of refugees, saying “Please don’t turn away. Refugees are the most vulnerable people on earth. Every day, they are fighting to survive. They deserve our respect. Please do not forget them. Remember them on this day. World Refugee Day.”

This ad represents one small part of the larger awareness-raising activities that will be promoted around the world. In addition to making the ad, Angelina will be giving an interview to Anderson Cooper on CNN Thursday night, as well as being the patroness for this year’s poster contest. According to the UNHCR press release, the international activities will be wide-ranging:

Headquarters and field staff have been planning for World Refugee Day for months and have prepared a wide range of activities focusing on this year’s theme of “Real People, Real Needs” and including light shows, film screenings, photography exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions, food bazaars, fashion shows, cultural performances, concerts and sports contests. There will also be quizzes, drawing and essay-writing competitions, tree planting, seminars, workshops, speeches, public awareness campaigns and poetry recitals.

UNHCR partners, including governments, donors, non-governmental organizations, Angelina Jolie and our other committed Goodwill Ambassadors will be doing their part to help, and refugees in camps and centres around the world will participate while enjoying much needed recognition.

This year, the main focus of UNHCR’s activities during WRD and the week leading up to it will be in the United States, the biggest donor to the agency. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres will be in America all week.

Guterres will be at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to meet journalists and present UNHCR’s “2008 Global Trends” – an eagerly waited annual compilation of statistics on the number of refugees, internally displaced people, stateless people and others of concern to the agency.

On Thursday, Guterres will attend the annual public ceremony for World Refugee Day at the National Geographic Museum in Washington. A number of high-profile guests are expected to appear with the High Commissioner, while the event will be led by CNN journalist Anderson Cooper. Participants will hear from a couple originating from Bhutan who were resettled in the United States after spending years in a refugee camp in eastern Nepal.

This showpiece event will also feature winning entries for a World Refugee Day poster contest under the patronage of Angelina Jolie, who has made a special WRD public service announcement that will be seen on the Internet as well as in airports, public transport and TV stations around the world. Elementary, middle and high school students were invited to design a poster around the “Real People, Real Needs” theme.

[From UNHCR]

Jolie has been the special goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) since 2001. In her capacity as goodwill ambassador, Angelina has visited more than 20 countries, according to the UNHCR site. This includes missions to refugee camps on the Iraqi border in 2008, and, to Afghanistan Nangarhar province, where “almost 850,000, or 20 percent, of all Afghan returnees have repatriated since 2002.” Angelina has also traveled to the Sudanese refugee camps in Chad, and her heavily-criticized trip to the Burmese-Thailand border several months ago. Her presence for World Refugee Day will most likely bring in millions of dollars and added international attention to refugee issues.