Barbara Hendricks
Barbara Hendricks
About Barbara
About Barbara
World-renowned classical singer Barbara Hendricks is UNHCR’s longest-serving Goodwill Ambassador, appointed in 1987. In recognition of her outstanding commitment to the plight of refugees, Barbara was named Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador in 2002.
Barbara has supported UNHCR’s efforts through dedicated advocacy, fundraising and awareness-raising at the highest diplomatic and governmental levels. Over the past 25 years, Barbara has travelled extensively with UNHCR, meeting refugees and policymakers across the globe, including on field visits to Greece, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Thailand, Malaysia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, and Cote D’Ivoire.
Barbara has performed at UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award on several occasions and has actively supported World Refugee Day since her appointment.
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Recent support
Barbara has lent her talent and platform to UNHCR for over three decades and continues to support the refugee cause today.
Most recently, in January 2024, Barbara performed at an exhibition organised by Sweden for UNHCR, featuring Pieter ten Hoopen’s exhibition called ‘Love Always’. The exhibition showcased powerful stories of love for people who have been forced to flee their homes in Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Bangladesh and Uganda.
This followed her performance of the poem ‘Home’ by Warsan Shire in November 2023 at the prestigious Kofi Annan Geneva Peace Address. This preceded the remarks delivered by Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner of UNHCR.
In October 2022, Barbara was the keynote speaker at UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award and in 2021, spoke at ACNUR’s 70th-anniversary celebration, co-chaired by Pedro Sanchez, the President of Spain, and Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. To mark the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, Barbara accepted interviews with Opera Wire and the BBC World Service in July 2021.
Barbara visiting a Community Health Centre in Khao I Dang Camp for Khmer refugees, Prachinburi Province in Thailand, in September 1991.
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In 2020, Barbara supported the European Development Days in Brussels, aimed at mobilizing the global development community to build new partnerships and find innovative answers to pressing needs. Barbara sat on the event’s High-Level Panel to address an audience of global development leaders, including the European Union, on the growing link between climate change and human displacement.
Barbara has participated in numerous UNHCR campaigns, including the 2019 Everyone Counts Campaign, which celebrated the resilience and skillsets that refugees bring to their host communities. The same year, she joined fellow Goodwill Ambassadors Cate Blanchett, Ben Stiller, and Emi Mahmoud in a powerful multi-voice campaign aimed at rallying solidarity against xenophobia to mark the 2019 Global Refuge Forum.
Barbara joined UNHCR donors at an Art Basel event in 2019, where she gave a powerful performance accompanied by her husband, Ulf.
I have met too many heartbroken mothers who had to bury their children.
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Field visits
In 2017, Barbara visited resettled refugee communities in Brussels.
The year prior, Barbara travelled to Greece to visit a series of refugee camps, emergency reception sites, and shelters for unaccompanied minors. Whilst there, she performed at Thessonaliki Concert Hall, raising funds to continue the vital work at the Diavata reception site, a safe space established for unaccompanied and separated children. Barbara returned in 2017 to sing with refugee children at the 7th Festival of Children’s Youth Choirs in Thessaloniki.
Reflecting on her mission to Greece, Barbara said, “I have met too many heartbroken mothers who had to bury their children”. One mother, she continued, “could not hold back her tears when she spoke about the perilous journey and the life they had been forced to leave behind”.
Whilst in Cote d’Ivoire to speak at the ECORWAS Conference in 2014, Barbara also visited the local refugee community. During her visit to SOS Village, an orphanage in Aboisso about 115 km east of Abidjan, Hendricks spoke with children who received birth certificates with the help of UNHCR and its Government partner, the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Public Liberties.
Advocacy
Barbara's performances at the Nansen Refugee Award
Barbara's performances at the Nansen Refugee Award
In October 2015, Barbara performed alongside friend and fellow humanitarian Angelique Kidjo at UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award in celebration of Afghan refugee teacher Aqeela Asifi. The same year, Barbara spoke and performed at a fundraising event in Dubai organised by UNHCR corporate partners.
Supporting stateless people
Since the IBelong campaign was launched in 2014, Barbara has continued to be one of its strongest advocates.
Helping launch the Campaign on Statelessness in Washington DC and The Hague, Barbara travelled twice to Cote D’Ivoire to work with UNHCR on highlighting the impact of Statelessness at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Conference in support of UNHCR’s work to end statelessness.
In March 2017, Barbara delivered an impassioned speech at the Treaty of Rome 60th Anniversary Ceremony at the European Parliament. She called on the European Union to remember its founding values and rise to meet the challenges of the refugee crisis.
Barbara Hendricks talks to a mother and children in the transit camp on the border of Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire.
Barbara Hendricks is greeted by one of the students of SOS Village in Aboisso, on the outskirts of Abidjan.
Barbara Hendricks talks to Antoinette about having no registration papers.
Barbara Hendricks stands in the village of Dronguine, western Côte d'Ivoire, with Elise and her children.
Barbara Hendricks stands with the villagers of Dronguine, Cote D'Ivoire. Their children had just been given their birth certificates.
Barbara Hendricks - A continuous effort to build empathy for refugees
Building empathy for refugees
Barbara’s continuous effort to build empathy for refugees led her to launch Bienvenue!, a collection of essays on displaced people written by renowned French authors. She has also featured in a film with fellow UNHCR ambassadors and high-profile supporters called Words Matter.
Barbara's work as a Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador
Barbara Hendricks news and highlights
News and highlights
Find the latest news and key highlights about Barbara's work as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
