Her specialty is the fight at the international level for the rights of women and the prosecution of those who tyrannize them, imprison them, dehumanize them. But Lebanese-British lawyer Amal Clooney, 44, doesn’t like to talk about herself, so to convince her, the magazine Time asked one of his clients, journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, to interview him.
With her, who suffered arrest warrants, prison and whom she helped to free, Amal Clooney lists her biggest current files: obtaining, for example, the conviction of the terrorists of the Islamic State for the rape and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women, bringing former Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir before the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, or even how she helped local associations to withdraw a text in Tanzania prohibiting pregnant or married students from school.
It doesn’t stop there. The cases on which Amal Clooney works range from Afghanistan to Belarus. “Justice doesn’t happen like that, just because the law is on your side, she saysit must be provoked, the abuses brought to light and this is done by holding accountable those who commit abuses, by daring to prosecute them, so that their crimes do not go unpunished”. At a time when we are talking about war, military, armed, offensive response, the lawyer puts the word justice back on the table. And international law, because it exists, because it has to be grasped.
.@mariaressa on Amal Clooney: “It’s sometimes hard to see all of Amal because of the glamor and celebrity that can overshadow her work. She embraces that glamor and shines light on some of the darkest parts of the world to help her clients” https://t.co/Q0SU7UXaWV pic.twitter.com/h4t6Q1G2Ys
—TIME (@TIME) March 6, 2022
Sadness of the media coverage: the only thing that is retained from this interview by the press, it is a small confidence of Amal Clooney on her husband actor, George, in whom she says to have found an inspiring partner and a faithful support . Well, that’s what makes the headlines. But she’s used to it and says that, as she can’t do anything about it, she ignores it, and prefers to tell herself that one day, weariness helping, this kind of reduction to the rank of “woman of…” won’t happen again.
Amal Clooney is an active optimist. She, who also teaches law, says that the new generations of students are more committed, involved, determined to change the world. She says that thanks to them we can hope. That’s good: Amal in Arabic means “hope”.