Angelina Jolie isn't just your average actress or filmmaker. She is also a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.  Recently, her work took her to northern Iraq, where she chronicled what she observed in an op-ed for the New York Times.

The "Unbroken" director was "speechless" when she heard stories of brutality administered by the Islamic State, and called out to the international community to give aid to the millions of displaced Iraqi and Syrian refugees seeking shelter.

While speaking of her visit to Khanke, Iraq, Jolie stated, "I have visited Iraq five times since 2007, and I have seen nothing like the suffering I'm witnessing now... These refugees and displaced people have witnessed unspeakable brutality. Their children are out of school, they are struggling to survive, and they are surrounded on all sides by violence."

She continued, "I try my best to give support. To say something that will show solidarity and give some kind of thoughtful guidance. On this trip I was speechless... What do you say to the 13-year-old girl who describes the warehouses where she and the others lived and would be pulled out, three at a time, to be raped by the men? When her brother found out, he killed himself."

Jolie reminded international readers that Syria's neighbors have taken in many refugees already, but are reaching their limits. She said, "Syrian refugees now make up 10 percent of Jordan's population. In Lebanon, every fourth person is now a Syrian...Far wealthier countries might crack under these pressures."

She ended by stating that the credibility of the international system could be at stake if nothing more is done to help the asylum-seekers. She stated, "It is not enough to defend our values at home, in our newspapers and in our institutions. We also have to defend them in the refugee camps of the Middle East, and the ruined ghost towns of Syria."