Angelina Jolie Wants The U.S To Acknowledge Seriousness Of Domestic Violence & Child Abuse Issues

Throughout her four-plus decades working in the movie industry, Angelina Jolie has churned out several stellar acting and filmmaking projects. However, she is more known for her humanitarian and activism roles in recent times.

Jolie, who is currently the UN special envoy for refugees, recently spoke toNBC News about the newly improved bill on Violence Against Women. While she acknowledges that the act was a step in the right direction to protect women from violence, the "Eternals" star opined that it was insufficient to truly address the far-reaching effects of domestic violence and child abuse issues.

President Joe Biden signed the act's renewal on Wednesday, March 16, and held a White House's East Room ceremony to commemorate the occasion. Jolie's visage stood out among the sea of faces in the audience, having personally clamored for the bill.

The actress and activist then discussed with NBC News' Kate Snow about the country's "severe" problem with domestic violence and child abuse, saying all hands should be on deck.

"It is personal to everyone," said Jolie in the interview. "Everyone who cares about family, everyone who cares about children, everyone who cares about their own safety and the health of their community."

Jolie continued: "I [think] this country doesn't recognize what a serious domestic violence and child abuse problem it really has. I think there is a reality that when somebody harms a child. If it's a stranger, the way the law looks at it, the way the law responds is quite strong."

"When it's somebody within a family, within a home, it is responded to less, and if you can imagine for the child, in fact that's in many ways worse," she added.

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 established funding programs for states to help and shelter victims of domestic violence. The bill also encompassed training to enhance the judicial system's reaction to domestic violence.

Since its passage, it has been extended three times with improved safeguards for the victims and additional means of reintegrating into their everyday lives. The updated act is a crucial part of a $1.5 trillion budget bill that extended financing for Pell Grants and other programs and offered billions in humanitarian help to Ukraine.

Additionally, the amended statute merges with the tenets of Kayden's law, a bill titled after a seven-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was unfortunately killed by her biological father in a murder-suicide.

Last month, Jolie traveled to Washington, D.C., with her 17-year-old daughter Zahara to advocate for the Violence Against Women Act, VAWA. Back in December, the mother-daughter twosome had also visited the capital state on behalf of their advocacy, meeting with legislators to support VAWA.

While Jolie's Instagram post at the time spoke about the progress of her activism work which was recently enacted, she also cited the need for more reforms that would address child abuse across all races.

"We need reforms including judicial training, trauma-informed court processes that minimize the risk of harm to children, grant programs for technology to detect bruising across all skin tones and create non-biased forensic evidence collection, and protections for the most vulnerable," she said.

Jolie does not intend to end her advocacy struggles with the newly amended legislation. The actress is also focusing her humanitarian efforts and gathering aid from political bigwigs to help displaced families worldwide.

Recently, the refugee issues in Ukraine prompted Jolie to embark on a ten-day relief mission, which also included a detour to Yemen, a war-torn region in western Asia. While she continues to contribute her quota to helping conflict-ravaged areas, Jolie advocates that the public should keep their attention on refugees even when the media has moved on from the news.