UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Australian actress Nicole Kidman said Thursday she will work to advance women's rights around the globe in her new role as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.

Nicole Kidman

Working with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Kidman, 38, will focus attention on critical gender concerns such as ending violence against women and getting attention for their issues.

"I hope that I can act as a conduit, that I can be the person who tells some of these stories," Kidman told The AP in a Thursday interview. "The way in which I was raised and the things I've seen in my life has led me toward this."
UNIFEM's Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said Kidman will help greatly with the group's cause.

"She's a very profound actress and artiste and I was very, very touched by her commitment to make sure she used her gifts for women everywhere in the world," Heyzer said.

When asked what led her to volunteer herself for what she says will be a lifetime commitment to women's causes, Kidman said her parents were a big influence.

"My family, we sat around the dinner table, we had political conversations. My father always said, 'You need to be involved. Don't be a voyeur, be a participator'," Kidman said.

She first heard about the work of UNIFEM after her mother listened to a BBC report about the group's work in Cambodia and told her about it.
Additionally, her work on the movie The Human Stain - in which she played a woman exposed to abuse - led her to real-life brushes with the issue.

"I went to meet with a lot of women in shelters - abuse shelters - and the stories I heard there ... were so disturbing," Kidman said.
She said that experience led her to try to find a way to help such women.

Kidman joins Princess Basma of Jordan - who focuses her attention on the Middle East - and Phoebe Asiyo, a member of the Kenyan Parliament, as a UNIFEM ambassador.

Since the 1950s, UN agencies have enlisted the help of prominent personalities from the arts and sports worlds to highlight key issues.
Kidman declined to talk about specific personal issues that led her to UNIFEM.

"This is about other women, this isn't about my life. I don't want this to be about me," she said.

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