UN body wants Kris as ambassador

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is eyeing President Aquino’s youngest sister and showbiz personality Kris as one of its goodwill ambassadors, just like the late Princess Diana and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Ronald Llamas disclosed yesterday he received the information about Kris when he attended the UNHCR conference in Geneva, Switzerland last week.

Llamas said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister and chairman of the European Council, is a member of the group that had been deliberating on whether to appoint Kris as ambassador of goodwill.

During the conference, Llamas said Guterres conveyed the agency’s deep appreciation for the Philippines’ cooperation with UNHCR and its “strong human-rights based approach” to refugees.

Llamas said he told the UNHCR that President Aquino had deep appreciation and concern for refugees and displaced persons, having been a political refugee himself in the 1970s and 1980s along with his late parents, former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino.

Leading the Philippine delegation to the UNHCR’s executive committee meeting held Oct. 3 to 7, Llamas expressed the Philippines’ commitment to continuing and enhancing its cooperation with the UNHCR.

According to Llamas, Guterres lauded the Philippines’ leadership in refugee and migration policy which he said “serves as an example and inspiration to the rest of the world.”

The UNHCR official also congratulated the Philippines for its recent accession to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and its ongoing deliberations on a proposed Philippine law on internally displaced persons or IDPs.

Llamas said that the Philippines had been cooperating with the UNHCR in assisting IDPs and in coordinating response assistance during natural disasters, as well as in operating an emergency travel mechanism for the resettlement of refugees in third countries.