Amal Clooney Quits As UK Special Envoy Over Brexit-Related Legislation

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has quit her role as the UK’s special envoy on press freedom in protest of the British government's willingness to violate International law over the Brexit legislation.

Recently, the British government drafted a bill that will breach international law and undermine a few parts of the deal it signed in January before Britain left the European Union. Moreover, the government acknowledges this violation. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated that the bill is important to counter the threats coming from Brussels. However, the bill has prompted several resignations and threats of rebellion by lawmakers in the country, reports The Tribune.

Also Read: Cornelia Sorabji Challenged Bias To Become India’s First Woman Lawyer

Amal Clooney, in a letter to Dominic Raab, the British Foreign Secretary, announced that she is quitting her role as the UK’s special envoy. She expressed her dismay at the government's "lamentable" suggestion to pass a legislation that would effectively override sections of the Brexit withdrawal agreement that Prime Minister Johnson had himself negotiated.

“Although the government has suggested that the violation of international law would be ‘specific and limited’, it is lamentable for the U.K. to be speaking of its intention to violate an international treaty signed by the Prime Minister less than a year ago," she wrote in her letter, quoted by ABC NEWS.

Clooney further added, "It has become untenable for me, as Special Envoy, to urge other states to respect and enforce international obligations while the UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself," quoted by the BBC

Also Read: US Supreme Court Justice And Women's Rights Advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies At 87

About Amal Clooney

Amal Clooney is a lawyer of Lebanese- British origin. She has specialised in international and human rights law. Her clients include Nobel prize laureate Nadia Murad, Wikileaks founder Juliane Assange, the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. In 2019 she was appointed by the British Government as the special envoy of Press Freedom. She is married to the Hollywood actor George Clooney.

Arunima Sharma is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.