Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured in 2022) will take on two new positions of advocacy as she fights extremist violent content on the Internet and as she serves as a new trustee to Prince William’s environmental Earthshot Prize. File Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI | License Photo
April 4 (UPI) — Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will take on two new positions, following her resignation in January, to fight extremist violent content on the Internet and as a new trustee to Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced Ardern’s appointment Tuesday as special envoy for the Christchurch Call, which was created by Ardern following the 2019 mosque shootings in the city that killed 51 people.
“I… still feel a duty at a personal level to the community who are affected by this tragedy,” Ardern said in an interview Tuesday. “I knew that I would have the time to do it. And I certainly have the passion for it.”
Ardern, who resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to lead the country, created Christchurch Call to pressure Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to stop the spread of extremist violent content. The attack, by a white supremacist on two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019, was live-streamed on a number of social-media platforms.
As special envoy, Ardern will work with international governments to adopt new laws that ban objectionable material and create guidelines on how to report on terrorist acts.
“Jacinda Ardern’s commitment to stopping violent extremist content like we saw that day is key to why she should carry on this work,” Hipkins said.
“The March 15 terror attacks on Christchurch masjidain were a defining moment for our country, and Jacinda Ardern’s leadership and the Christchurch Call is part of our response to those attacks.”
On Tuesday, Ardern also revealed that she will become a new trustee of the Prince of Wales’ environment award, Earthshot Prize.
“Four years ago, before the Earthshot Prize even had a name, Jacinda was one of the first people I spoke to, and her encouragement and advice was crucial to the prize’s early success,” Prince William said. “I am hugely grateful to her for joining us as she takes the next steps in her career.”
Earthshot Prize awards winners annually in five environmental categories for their efforts in protecting and restoring nature, fighting for cleaner air, reviving the oceans, building a waste-free world, and addressing climate change.
Ardern, who attended the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York last September, said she has always believed in the environmental prize’s “power to encourage and spread not only the innovation we desperately need, but also optimism.”
