South African-born actress Charlize Theron was named a United Nations peace messenger on Friday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of Charlize: "You have used your voice, compassion and special relationship with the public to create a better world".
Her message of peace circulates around ending violence against women. She has even played important roles in movies that shed light on such cases, like her role in the 2003 movie "Monster," in which she played serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who suffered from violence and abuse and was executed in Florida in 2002.
She also played a woman who fights back against sexual harassment in the 2005 movie "North Country".

Charlize herself has witnessed domestic violence first-hand; at the age of 15 she saw her mother fatally shot her alcoholic father as he threatened the family in a drunken rage.

She joins a group of celebrities who are UN Peace Messengers; George Clooney and Michael Douglas, musicians Daniel Barenboim, Midori Goto and Yo-Yo Ma, authors Paulo Coelho and Elie Wiesel, equestrian Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein and naturalist Jane Goodall.