Campaigning star Jennifer Lopez's humanitarian efforts have been honored by human rights group Amnesty International. The actress was awarded the Artists for Amnesty prize at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday for highlighting the spate of unsolved killings in Mexico in her latest film.

Bordertown, which also stars Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen, sees Lopez play an investigative journalist reporting on a serial killer in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez. Amnesty International claims more than 400 unsolved female murders have been committed in Juarez since the killings began in 1993.

Lopez described the situation as "one of the world's most shocking and disturbing, underreported crimes against humanity." The Oscar-winning actress said she was "very humbled" after being presented with the award by East Timor's Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace laureate.