Hollywood actor George Clooney has said the world needs to become more engaged in doing good for humanity.

He chairs the selection committee for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, awarded in Armenia to an outstanding humanitarian worker.

The accolade marks the memory of survivors of what citizens of the mountainous Caucasus region country describe as a genocide on their land a century ago.

George Clooney.
(Anthony Devlin/PA)

George said: “We all have a role in addressing these global challenges.

“We all have a responsibility, each of us individually.

“We have to be engaged.”

The ceremony was attended by the country’s president and named after one of the survivors of the First World War era eight-year slaughter and alleged ethnic cleansing suffered by Armenians as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.

George Clooney.
(Danny Lawson/PA)

Armenia estimates that 1.5 million countrymen died in the pogroms. Turkey does not recognise it as genocide and estimates the number of deaths in the thousands. George is an outspoken human rights advocate.

Dr Tom Catena, who has worked in Sudan’s war-ravaged Nuba Mountains for more than a decade, was awarded the prize.

George said the Aurora finalists were “modern day heroes” who had put themselves at risk.