Amal Clooney quits envoy role in protest of Britain's 'lamentable' Brexit legislation
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
LONDON — International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has quit her role as Britain's special envoy on media freedom in protest at the country's intention to break international law over Brexit-related legislation.
Clooney was appointed in 2019 to advise Britain on legal and policy initiatives that governments can adopt to improve media freedom, but abruptly cut short her role on Friday.
"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," said Clooney in a letter to British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.
"It threatens to embolden autocratic regimes that violate international law with devastating consequences all over the world," added the lawyer, who is married to movie-star George Clooney.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told NBC News in response to the resignation: "We'd like to thank Amal Clooney for all her work as Special Envoy to defend journalists and promote media freedom around the world."
The British government drafted a bill that it acknowledges could violate its international legal obligations and undercut parts of the divorce deal it signed before Britain formally left the European Union in January.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the bill was essential to counter "absurd" threats from Brussels, but his decision has prompted a number of high-profile resignations in recent days, including of Richard Keen, the government's law officer for Scotland, and the head of its legal department, Jonathan Jones.
Johnson's decision also poses the threat of a rebellion by his own lawmakers over the so-called "Internal Market Bill," which is currently being debated by Parliament.
It has also led to a furious outcry within the E.U. as it would diminish the bloc's previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, if a U.K.-E.U. trade agreement isn't secured.
This week, Democratic candidate Joe Biden said he would not support any trade deal with London if it endangers peace in Northern Ireland — an issue that has dominated the U.K.'s messy and protracted departure from the European Union.
Clooney has represented Iraq's Yazidi community and WikiLeaks head Julian Assange and served as a senior adviser to Kofi Annan when he was the United Nations' envoy on Syria. She has also been a visiting faculty member at Columbia Law School and represented journalists and political prisoners globally.
She said she accepted the envoy role in April 2019 because she believed "in the importance of the cause," and appreciated the "significant role that the U.K. has played and can continue to play in promoting the international legal order."
But after she said she received "no assurance" that any change of position from the British government was imminent, she had "no alternative but to resign."
Adela Suliman is a London-based writer and reporter for NBC News Digital.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed.
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I side with the U.K. government on this issue.
no deal with the eu is the best deal for the uk.
the globalists are just pissed - and will never actually get over it.
Globalism is reality.
You might have heard of cell phones, the internet, airplanes and the U.N..
Trump's head-in-the-sand isolationist policies are hurting America and Americans.
global trade will be just fine - but globalist planners have no future on this earth
when you figure out the difference between globalists and global trade... get back to me.
The French have a very useful expression: Fuite en avant. It means something like "plunging on ahead with whatever has been started, regardless of ongoing events".
The Brits foolishly voted for Brexit. There was no known solution for Ireland. Everyone waved their hands: "We'll find something!"
There was no known solution because there is no solution.
So now we have the British government explicitly stating that it will go back on its signature.
Next step: renewed violence in Northern Ireland. That's obvious. But in his fuite en avant, Boris Johnson will worry about that when it happens.
Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you the Honorable Boris Johnson !
The mistake was joining in the first place. Norway and Switzerland didn't join and the people in Britain are envious of their success.
... which just goes to show how ignorant the Brits are...
But now the brits may be stuck with bananas that have too much unsightly curve, though they can admit once again that water hydrates a body. Yeah, the eu is for small minded people that need a mommy figure around to tell them everything.
The Brits leaving the E.U. shows how smart and enlightened they are.
It would be undemocratic not to allow an agreement made by elected officials to be undone by newly elected officials, This is how change happens, if you don't like what your elected officials are doing or have done you vote them out and get new ones who then do things differently. The American Left is against BREXIT so they're against the UK going back on this particular agreement but they'd be cheering if Biden were elected and started tearing up agreements and treaties signed by Trump. The truth is the UK elected new officials because the old ones were mucking up the works trying to make BREXIT fail, now they have officials who are truly trying to do the will of the people but first they need to clear the muck left by the previous officials.
You seem to be saying that a treaty is only reliable as long as there is no change of government. Is that what you mean?
Any treaty signed by one President may be repudiated by the next?
of course, nothing new here, no marriage is permanent.
Absolutely ! It's the foundation of Democracy, what good is your vote if it can't change things. In all actuality this is supposed to incentivize the crafting of laws and treaties that the electorate wants and will support.
It's the end of diplomacy.
Diplomacy is overrated. Being stuck in a socialist collective has not been beneficial for the UK.
The Voters of the UK have spoken twice. Once when they voted for BREXIT and again when they voted the politicians who were trying to sabotage BREXIT out of office. Now they've elected leaders who are doing the will of the people and that's the way it should be. The people of the UK have the right to self determination, it doesn't matter what you or I or the EU want the UK belongs to it's Citizens and they want to make their own choices and that's why they chose BREXIT.
Even if their choices are determined by a far right wing/Russian propaganda campaign much like what Americans are experiencing?
Nobody's going to suspend Democracy based on Far Leftwing Conspiracy Theories. Just because People don't do and say and believe what you want them to doesn't mean they've been brainwashed by the Russians, they just don't like your Kool-Aid.
whatcha mean? the uk people voted for brexit... I'm thinkin that changed some things... LOL
even our vote changed things in the usa ( short list )
why should people be stuck with bs deals forever? ( rhetorical )
they got russians on the brain - it might be permanent damage
If I am a citizen of the UK, British law is the ultimate law I respect. I suppose if I am an ideologue who hates the UK, international law would be the ultimate law I'd respect.
It all kind of makes sense.
The UK has its commonwealth of nations to fashion trade with as well as the other four five eyes nations. (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States)