UN gives Cate Blanchett same treatment as a small nation

AS Queen Elizabeth I Cate Blanchett ran turbulent England in its golden age, so who better to offer advice on serious affairs of state? Still, it was a surprise to see the Oscar-winning actor treated like a ruling monarch when she appeared before a session of the UN.

HELEN CORBETT

3 min read

August 30, 2018 - 12:00AM

NSW

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AS Queen Elizabeth I, Cate Blanchett ran turbulent England in its golden age in two movies so who better to front the UN with advice on serious affairs of state.

Still, it was a surprise to see the Oscar-winning actor treated like a ruling monarch when she appeared before a session of the powerful UN Security Council to discuss the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees.

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett at a United Nations Security Council session on Myanmar. Picture: AFP

She was there in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, having visited Rohingya camps in neighbouring Bangladesh in March.

But the UN appeared to consider her to be a country in her own right, feeling it sufficient to identify her by name only, in contrast to the representatives of France, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Bangladesh she sat alongside.

The nameplate certainly looked nation state-worthy.

It was not one that only conveyed her position, as was the case when Angelina Jolie addressed the council in 2015.

Perhaps it was a reflection that one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars had earning powers to rival some Third World countries.

A stylish Blancett arrives at the meeting. Picture: AFP

Blanchett, who sold her Hunters Hill mansion in Sydney for $18 million last year and now lives in a country manor in East Sussex, has a net worth of about $US75 million according to industry estimates.

She has long used her fame to promote environmental and humanitarian causes and appealed to the Security Council for countries to do more to help the Rohingya.

MORE: Blanchett hangs out in wintery Sydney with son

And, in true Hollywood style, Blanchett captured the attention of her UN counterparts with her dramatic “gut-wrenching accounts” of the Rohingya plight.

“I am a mother, and I saw my children in the eyes of every single refugee child I met,” she said.

“I saw myself in every parent. How can any mother endure seeing her child thrown into a fire.”

Then Blanchett gets down to business. Picture: AFP

The Security Council meeting was held to mark one year since a military crackdown drove more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar.

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The UN’s independent fact-finding mission has recommended referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would require the agreement of the 15-member council.

The report also urged the Council to adopt sanctions against individuals from the military and impose an arms embargo on Myanmar.

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