Amal Clooney

Career

Amal Clooney specializes in international law and human rights. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School and co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which provides free legal support to victims of human rights abuses in over 40 countries around the world. She represents clients before international courts including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. She frequently represents victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence, as well as political prisoners in cases involving freedom of expression, women’s rights and fair-trial rights. She has been counsel in many landmark human rights cases in recent years including the world’s first trial in which an ISIS member was convicted of committing genocide against Yazidis and two subsequent trials in which ISIS members have been convicted of genocide – the only such convictions anywhere in the world. Ms. Clooney also represents Yazidi victims in the first case alleging complicity in crimes against humanity by a company that funded the terror group.

Ms. Clooney has also represented Armenia in a case involving the Armenian genocide and was recently counsel to 126 victims in the first trial charging a warlord responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan, at the International Criminal Court. In 2021 she was appointed a Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She has also led a Legal Task Force on Accountability for Crimes Committed in Ukraine, established at the request of the government of Ukraine to advise on delivering justice for victims of crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. She is also a member of the Working Group on Compensation for Damage Cause to Ukraine, a group of international legal experts appointed by the of Ukraine to advise on legal mechanisms for survivors of the conflict to claim compensation.

She is well known for her work securing the freedom of political prisoners, especially journalists, arbitrarily imprisoned across the globe, including in Egypt, Myanmar, The Philippines, The Maldives, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. In 2020 she was the recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalist’s Gwen Ifill Award for ‘extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom’. She has also been awarded the ‘Freedom of the Press Awards’ by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Champion of the International Rule of Law award by the American Society of International Law.

Ms. Clooney has also served as a senior advisor to Kofi Annan when he was the UN’s Envoy on Syria, as Counsel to the UN Inquiry on the use of armed drones and as a rapporteur for the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute on independence of the judiciary. She is a member of the UK’s team of experts on preventing sexual violence in conflict zones and the UK Attorney General’s panel of experts on public international law. She has also served as the UK’s Envoy on Media Freedom and as deputy chair of an International Bar Association Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom chaired by former UK Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger.

Prior to joining the London bar, Professor Clooney worked in The Hague at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She is admitted to the New York Bar and practiced for several years as a litigation attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York. Her first book, The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (co-authored with P. Webb), was published in 2020 and won the top prize in academic book publishing from the American Society of International Law. Her second, Free Speech in International Law, comes out in January 2024.

Professional Memberships

Admitted to the Bar in New York (2002), England & Wales (2010)

Publications

o Free Speech in International Law, co-edited with D. Neuberger (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024)

o The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law, with P. Webb (Oxford University Press, 2020)

o The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Law and Practice, co-edited with D. Tolbert and N. Jurdi (Oxford University Press, 2014)

o Human Rights, chapter in I. Roberts (ed.), Satow’s Diplomatic Practice (8th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2023)

Work Highlights

• Yazidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS (legal advice and advocacy before United Nations). Successfully advocated for creation of a UN investigation of ISIS’ crimes in Iraq, now operational pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2379. Clients include 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, other female survivors of sexual violence, and the charity Yazda, which represents Yazidi survivors worldwide.

• United States v. Nisreen Bahar (aka “Umm Sayyaf”). Representing five Yazidi women under the US Crime Victims’ Rights Act in a criminal case involving crimes committed by ‘the ISIS widow’.

• Prosecutor v. LafargeHolcim. Representing a group of Yazidi women in landmark criminal proceedings against a company charged with complicity in crimes against humanity for allegedly providing support to ISIS.

• Prosecutor v. Taha A-J. Represented a Yazidi woman in a criminal case against a member of ISIS who purchased, enslaved, tortured and killed the client’s five-year old daughter. First known case in the world where a member of ISIS was convicted of genocide under universal jurisdiction laws.

• The Gambia v. Myanmar. Instructed by state party to the Genocide Convention to intervene in the ongoing case between The Gambia and Myanmar before the ICJ, addressing Myanmar’s alleged responsibility for genocide against the Rohingya and seeking remedies for the victims.

• The Prosecutor v. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (‘Ali Kushayb’). Represented group of over 100 Darfuri victims in criminal case against a commander of the Janjaweed militia in the Darfur region of Sudan charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

• Perinçek v. Switzerland. Represented the Republic of Armenia intervening as a third party in a case concerning the denial of the Armenian genocide.

• Ireland v. UK. Represented the ‘hooded men’ in an application by the Republic of Ireland for revision of a 1978 judgment holding that the ‘five techniques’, including hooding, food and drink deprivation and sleep deprivation did not amount to torture.

• Mutua et al. v. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Legal advice on international law aspects of claim by 5 members of the Mau Mau Kenyan tribe alleging torture in detention camps during British Colonial rule in Kenya. Historic settlement reached - UK government agreed to pay £19.9 million in compensation to over 5,000 claimants and issued apology for abuses that took place.

• Johnson v. Ghana. Represented a Ghanaian citizen on death row in a case arguing that the mandatory death penalty imposed for certain crimes amounts to a violation of the defendant’s human rights.

• R (Bancoult) v. FCO (No.2). Represented Mr. Bancoult in proceedings concerning the removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Islands in 1971 and their right to return.

• Roma Lead Poisoning. Advised and represented members of the Roma community in claims for compensation against the UN arising from their lead poisoning in Kosovo’s IDP camps.

• Prosecutor v. Ayyash et al. Member of the prosecuting team at the first UN-created court dealing with terrorism. Case concerned five persons accused of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri and others in a terrorist attack in Beirut.

• Prosecutor v. Milosevic. Judicial assistant to Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding Judge in the first trial of a head of state -- the ex-President of the former Republic of Yugoslavia -- for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

• AAA v. Camellia PLC et al. Represented 36 women alleging rape and other gender-based violence on tea estates in Malawi. Secured ground-breaking settlement, including compensation, a Female Leadership Training Programme, and funding of civic education programmes for women in the community.

• People of the Philippines v. Maria Ressa and Rappler. International counsel for Filipino journalist and Nobel Laureate facing over 40 years in prison in Manila based on spurious charges, including ‘cyber-libel’.

• Prosecutor v. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. Counsel for two Reuters journalists sentenced to 7 years in following their reporting on crimes committed against Rohingyas by the Myanmar forces. Journalists released May 2019.

• Khadija Ismayilova v. Azerbaijan. Represented award-winning journalist subject to politically-motivated prosecution following her reporting of corruption by the President and his family. The European Court ruled in her favour and she was released in 2016.

• Mohamed Nasheed v. The Maldives. Represented Maldives’ former president who had been subject to an unfair and politically-motivated trial to exclude him from the Presidential elections. Mr. Nasheed released 2016.

• Prosecutor v. Mohamed Fahmy. Represented journalist from Al Jazeera English television network detained in Egypt following unfair trial for the crimes of ‘terrorism’ and ‘fake news’. Fahmy released 2015.

• Tymoshenko v. Ukraine. Represented the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in challenging her politically-motivated prosecution and detention in Ukraine. Case settled with an acknowledgement by Ukraine of the violations raised in the European Court claim and she was released in 2014.

Languages Spoken

o English

o French

o Arabic (conversational)

Education

Awards