LONDON – International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has resigned as Britain’s special envoy on media freedom in protest of the country’s intention to break international law on Brexit.
Clooney was appointed in 2019 to advise Brooke on legal and policy initiatives that governments could adopt to improve media freedom, but Friday will suddenly shorten his role.
Clooney said in a letter to British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabbani that it was “saddening” for the UK to talk about its intentions to violate an international treaty signed by the Prime Minister less than a year ago.
The lawyer, who is married to movie-star George Clooney, added, “It threatens to advance an authoritarian regime that violates international law with disastrous consequences around the world.”
A State Department spokeswoman told NBC News in response to the resignation: “We thank Amal Clooney for all the work he has done as a special envoy to defend journalists and promote media freedom around the world.”
The British government drafted a bill acknowledging that its international legal obligations could be violated and reduced parts of the divorce deal it signed before Britain formally left the European Union in January.
Prime Minister Boris John has said the bill was necessary to counter “throbbing” threats from Brussels, but his decision will lead to several high-profile resignations in recent days, including Richard Keane, the government’s law officer for Scotland, and the head. His legal department, Jonathan Jones.
Johnson’s decision is also likely to provoke a revolt by his own legislators over the so-called “Internal Market Bill”, which is currently being debated by Parliament.
If the UK-EU trade agreement is not secured, it will reduce the previously agreed oversight of trade between the mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, as it has sparked anger within the EU.
This week, Democratic candidate Joe Biden said he would not support any trade deal with London if it endangered peace in Northern Ireland – an issue that dominates the UK’s turmoil and will leave the European Union for a long time.
Clooney has represented Iraq’s Yazidi community and WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange and served as Kofi Annan’s senior adviser when he was the UN ambassador to Syria. She has been a visiting faculty member at Columbia Law School and represents journalists and political prisoners globally.
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She said she accepted the role of ambassador in April 2019 because she believed in the “importance of reason” and could “play the role and role that the UK can play in the promotion of international law.”
But when he said he had “no assurances” that any change of position from the British government was imminent, he had “no choice but to resign.”
Reuters and the Associated Press Contributed.
