Nicole Kidman at the UN for UNIFEM's Say No to Violence Against Women campaign

Nicole Kidman, seven months pregnant and passionately committed to her other job as a UN goodwill ambassador, yesterday urged world leaders and ordinary people to join the global fight to end violence against women.

"One in three women will encounter violence in some way, shape or form against them in their lifetime," Kidman said at UN headquarters in New York.

"That's an extraordinary statistic. Yet do we ever hear it?"

The 40-year-old became a goodwill ambassador in January 2006 for the UN Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM.

Asked if Kidman had made a difference, UNIFEM acting executive director Joanne Sandler pointed out that since her appointment, the UN Trust Fund's resources had more than tripled to $US15 million ($15.9 million).

Since the year-long campaign was launched on November 26, Ms Sandler said an estimated 210,000 people had signed an internet "virtual" book to call on world leaders to end impunity for perpetrators, provide services for survivors and, most importantly, invest in prevention.

"Governments are responding," Ms Sandler said. "We are beginning to see decision-makers sign on. The whole cabinet of Senegal, led by President (Abdoulaye) Wade, signed on to the campaign in March."

Kidman urged people of all nations to add their names and demand "that ending violence against women be made a top priority for governments everywhere".

She said violence against women was an issue still shrouded in shame and silence.

"What we're trying to do is say this is not something that has a stigma attached to it. This is something we can talk about in communities, in countries, that we can help, that we can get laws implemented," she said.

"I'm seven months pregnant so I'm sort of lying low at the moment, but if there were certain parliaments that would do these public signings, then I would be willing to get on a plane and go and say thank you - and bring whatever attention I can bring ... within my own health restraint."

Kidman is expecting her first child with country singer husband Keith Urban; she has two adopted children with first husband Tom Cruise.

She said she was attracted to UNIFEM because its programs were "solution-based" and because she was raised by a mother who is a feminist and a nurse and a father who is a psychologist.

As a child, she would accompany her mother to the hospital where she saw people who were suffering, which "leaves a powerful imprint on your psyche".

"Obviously, I'm emotionally connected to this," she said, "I think it's very important.

"At the same time, I'm a mother. I have a child on the way ... and a lot of it is realising the things that are wrong and ... (what) I can contribute to help my children have a better life, and to help other children around the world have a better life."

She smiled broadly when asked about being back at the UN. In 2005, she starred in the movie The Interpreter, a thriller in which she played a UN interpreter caught up in a cloak-and-dagger assassination attempt. [via]