Anita Rani

British broadcaster Anita Rani travelled to Kyrgyzstan with UNHCR to meet families affected by statelessness.

About Anita

Anita Rani has been supporting UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency since 2017, and was announced as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in March 2021.

Anita has consistently used her platform to amplify refugee voices. In 2021, Anita narrated UNHCR’s podcast Forced to Flee, which told the individual stories of displaced people from around the globe. With thanks to Anita, the podcast won a series of awards, including the People’s Voice Award, The Webby’s, and the British Podcast Award.

In addition to her many feats, Anita is the current presenter of BBC Four’s Women’s Hour. As a leading presenter for the BBC’s flagship show Countryfile, she has highlighted the realities of refugees rebuilding their lives in the UK. She presented a three-part documentary, ‘The Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home’, which – produced with help from UNHCR – shone a light on life in the Za’atari camp in Jordan. She also co-produced BBC One’s two-part series 'My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947'.

Anita has hosted UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award in Geneva, as well as the Women on the Move Awards, celebrating the vital contributions that refugee and migrant women make to their local communities in the UK.

In October 2019, Anita chaired a panel discussion between Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett and activist Maha Mamo at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in Geneva, discussing UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign to end statelessness by 2024.

Kyrgyzstan, 2019. British broadcaster Anita Rani travelled to Kyrgyzstan with UNHCR to meet families affected by statelessness. Here she gives Shirmonkhon Saydaliyeva, 47, a hug.

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Field visits

As part of Anita’s support for the 2019 Nansen Award, Anita travelled to Kyrgyzstan to meet Nansen Award winner Azizbek Ashurov with UNHCR. She rode on horseback through the mountains, following the path human rights lawyer Ashurov would have taken during his mission to provide stateless Kyrgyzstanis with documentation and identity.

Anita Rani talking to a formerly stateless person Shirmonkhon Saydaliyeva. Both of them are smiling.

Kyrgyzstan, 2019. British broadcaster Anita Rani travelled to Kyrgyzstan with UNHCR to meet families affected by statelessness. Here she talks to Shirmonkhon Saydaliyeva, 47.

Kyrgyzstan, 2019. British broadcaster Anita Rani travelled to Kyrgyzstan with UNHCR to meet families affected by statelessness.

Four panellists and a moderator take part in a discussion, with several officials in the background.

UNHCR’s 70th Executive Committee meeting, Switzerland, 2019. Panellists (left to right): UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett, radio and television broadcaster Anita Rani (moderating), High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, and OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Lamberto Zannier, take part in a discussion on statelessness.