Spice Girls’ Victoria Beckham Named U.N. Goodwill Ambassador [VIDEOS]

Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham was named the latest U.N. Goodwill Ambassador after going on a trip to South Africa where she realized it was her responsibility to raise awareness for the AIDS disease. Victoria will be working as a part of the Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS.

On Thursday the fashion designer missed her first London store opening to speak at a U.N. press conference with Executive Director of Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS Michael Sidbe at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

"It's taken me getting to 40 years old to realize I have a responsibility as a woman, as a mother, I have a voice that people will listen to and I'm taking that responsibility very seriously. Children, babies should not be born with HIV and we can stop that. We're very, very close to stopping that, which is why I'm sitting here now," Victoria said during the press conference.

The mother-of-four revealed that working as a part of the U.N. Ambassador team is really important to her and that she wasn't upset about missing her store opening, because this was where she was needed.

"I was so honored to be given this role, I really do, and to be invited to work with your team is such an honor and an invitation that I couldn't turn down," she said. "I have a great team in London, I've left my team there, I trust them all but there was only one place that I knew I had to be today after I received the invitation. There was never any doubt in my mind. I was always coming and I feel very honored and very humbled and thank you so much."

Victoria is the newest celebrity to take on this role as Goodwill Ambassador. One of the most iconic Ambassadors is Angelina Jolie who was made a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador in 2001, E! Online reported. The 40-year-old doesn't plan on trying to be the next Angelina; instead she is focusing on paving her own way and helping end the AIDS epidemic.

"Oh, goodness me!" Victoria said in response to being called "Britain's answer to Angelina Jolie" by a reporter. "I wouldn't, I'm not trying to be anybody other than myself, you know. I don't know what I can do. I want to learn, I want to learn from Michel, I want to learn from the incredible people from the U.N. and the charities around me."

Another famous Brit, Emma Watson recently joined the Goodwill Ambassador club, too. Last weekend, Emma gave a speech at the United Nations to help launch HeForShe, a gender equality campaign after becoming an Ambassador six months ago.

Emma began her speech saying, "Today, we are launching a campaign called HeForShe. I am reaching out to you before we need your help. We want to end gender inequality and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change and we don't just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it's tangible."

She ended the empowering speech by asking people to join in the general equality movement. "If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier and for this, I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is that we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward to be seen and to ask yourself, 'If not me, who? If not now, when?' Thank you very, very much."

You can see both Victoria's press conference and Emma's speech in the videos below.