Respected human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has quit her role as British Foreign Secretary’s Special Envoy on Media Freedom in protest of the actions the British government could take to override a Brexit agreement.
In her letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, she was “dismayed to learn that the government intends to pass legislation—the Internal Market Bill—which would, by the government’s own admission, ‘break international law’ if enacted”.
The UK is currently in Brexit negotiations and Clooney has learnt that the British government’s intention to violate an international treaty.
“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 continued in her letter.
She discussed the matter further with Raab and after no receiving any “assurance that any change of position is imminent” she had no choice but to resign from her role as these actions, in her opinion, threaten “to embolden autocratic regimes that violate international law with devastating consequences all over the world.”
“I am disappointed to have to do so,” she writes. “However, very sadly, it has now 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.”
In her role, Clooney was heading up a panel comprising of the world’s best legal minds to advise the government on improving media freedom and examine the current laws protecting journalists in the country.
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