In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to improve the performance of a voice activity detection(VAD) which is based on the generalized normal-Laplace(GNL) distribution. In our algorithm, the probability density function(PDF) of the noisy speech signal is represented by the GNL distribution and the variance of the speech and noise of GNL distribution are estimated using higher order moments. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm yields better results compared to the conventional VAD algorithms.