Amal Clooney quits UK envoy role over 'lamentable' government plans to break international law
She says she can't urge others to respect international laws "while the UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself".
Friday 18 September 2020 18:07, UK
Amal Clooney has quit her role as the UK’s special envoy on media freedom in protest at the government’s "lamentable" intention to "break international law" with the Internal Market Bill.
The high-profile human rights lawyer said "it is lamentable for the UK to be speaking of its intention to violate an international treaty signed by the prime minister less than a year ago".
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Ms Clooney wrote that she cannot urge other nations to respect international obligations "while the UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself".
She was, she said "dismayed" to learn of the Internal Market Bill, a piece of Brexit legislation, which would, by ministers' own admission, "break international law" by allowing them to override provisions in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement relating to Northern Ireland.
The lawyer added that she put off resigning the role until she spoke to Mr Raab directly about her concerns "out of respect for the professional working relationship I have developed with you and your senior colleagues working on human rights".
"But having now done so and received no assurance that any change of position is imminent, I have no alternative but to resign from my position," she added.
The letter, sent via the law firm Doughty Street Chambers, adds that the bill has damaged Britain's standing in the world.
"I am disappointed to have to do so because I have always been proud of the UK's reputation as a champion of the international legal order, and of the culture of fair play for which it is known," she wrote.
"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.
"It threatens to embolden autocratic regimes that violate international law with devastating consequences all over the world."
Ms Clooney, a British-Lebanese barrister, was appointed to the post of special envoy in April last year.
She said her task was to help promote actions governments could take "to ensure that existing international obligations relating to media freedom are enforced in accordance with international law".
"I accepted the role," she said, "because I believe in the importance of the cause".
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We'd like to thank Amal Clooney for all her work as special envoy to defend journalists and promote media freedom around the world."
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The bill, published on 9 September, is contentious as it overrides parts of the EU's legal divorce deal, known as the Withdrawal Agreement, which came into effect on 31 January 2020.
Despite deep misgivings by some senior Conservatives and all five living former prime ministers, MPs voted on 14 September to give the bill a second reading, with a government majority of 77 - although two Tories voted against it and 30 abstained.
Her decision to quit follows the resignations of two other senior lawyers - the advocate general for Scotland, Lord Keen of Elie, and the head of the Government Legal Department Sir Jonathan Jones.
It will add to the pressure on Boris Johnson who has been facing calls to drop measures in the UK Internal Market Bill enabling ministers to override provisions in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement relating to Northern Ireland.