Discovering the driving force behind Amal Clooney’s unwavering commitment to defending individuals whose rights have been violated by war crimes, genocide, and the oppression of women.
By Nichola Marie
In May 2024, a young mother Arti, from Uttar Pradesh, broke the mould to become one of the first pink e-rickshaw drivers in her district, providing safe transport for other women and inspiring other girls in her village to believe they too can forge their own path. Her determined efforts to drive change earned her the prestigious Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award, instituted by King’s Trust International, founded by King Charles III. Instituted to highlight the global work of young women who have succeeded against the odds and made a lasting difference to those around them, the awards, named after Amal Clooney, are understandably close to her heart; in fact, she describes it as “a particular pleasure to be able to champion young women making a difference in their communities.”
Making a difference is something as intrinsic to Clooney as is — at the risk of sounding melodramatic — breathing. It could have its roots in the fact that she has personally experienced being on the ‘other side’. Born Amal Alamuddin in 1978, in Beirut, Lebanon, and hailing from a distinguished and diverse background, the family had to relocate to the UK in the early 1980s, amid the Lebanese Civil War. “My own family is from Lebanon, and they also ran away from a war, and were lucky enough to be accepted by a European country,” she has revealed, her personal history shaping her worldview, and sparking her empathy and drive to support those affected by conflict and persecution.
Fighting The Good Fight
Growing up in a family that encouraged intellectual pursuits and valued public service — her mother was a journalist and her father, an expert in international law and business — she was encouraged to engage with global issues from a young age. Graduating from St Hugh’s College, Oxford University, with a degree in Jurisprudence (law), she later earned a Master’s degree in law (LL.M.) from the New York University School of Law. Exposed to diverse global issues during her time in New York helped crystallise her desire to pursue human rights law.
Working for prestigious organisations, including the International Court of Justice and the office of the UN SecretaryGeneral, she gained first-hand experience in international law, global diplomacy, and human rights advocacy. As her fervour for human rights grew, she became especially passionate about defending individuals whose rights had been violated, particularly those affected by war crimes, genocide, and the oppression of women.
An immensely hard worker, she is meticulous about the details, poring over thousands of pages of documents, to plan her strategy. “She makes sure that women who are victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence, are not forgotten, that they get justice, that their lives and communities are better as a result,” noted ‘TIME’ magazine, honouring her as Woman of the Year in 2022.
Knowledge & Courage
Clooney’s empathy is as strong as her knowledge of the law, her courage, and her profound sense of justice. A vocal critic of international inaction in the face of human rights abuses, as seen in her work with the United Nations and other advocacy organisations, she has consistently used her platform to speak out about the importance of human rights and justice. She has also often spoken about her deep sense of responsibility to help others. Her passion for human rights, she describes, is driven by a belief in fairness and justice – universal values that everyone deserves to experience, regardless of where they are born or their background.
Alluding to her twins Alexander and Ella, with Hollywood star husband George Clooney, she admits motherhood has further impacted her. “With everything going on today, I want to have a good answer when they ask me what I was doing.”
Speaking to ‘TIME’ about her choice of human rights law, she revealed, “I’m responding to what I see happening in the world. A world where the guilty are free, and the innocent are imprisoned — where the human rights abusers are free, and those who report on the abuses are locked up. As a lawyer, I can do something about that. Or I can at least try. So my work is focused on trying to help liberate victims and prosecute perpetrators — and by extension, our foundation’s work is trying to really do that at scale and globally.”
“You have to have dogged determination,” she adds, “and you can’t let go because the stakes are so high. You’re coming up against people whose power and existence depends on them continuing to commit serious abuses, and so they’re not going to give up. So we definitely can’t give up on our side.”
Solid Impact
Clooney’s work in international law is focused on defending journalists, political activists, and victims of war crimes. Frequently representing victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence, she has acted in many landmark human rights cases in recent years including the world’s first and only trials in which ISIS members have been convicted of genocide against Yazidis. She also represents over 800 Yazidis in the first civil case in a US court seeking to hold ISIS financiers responsible for supporting the terror group while it was committing its well-documented genocide. She has represented Armenia in a case involving the Armenian genocide and was counsel to 126 victims of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, at the International Criminal Court.
Representing political prisoners around the world, she has helped to secure the freedom of journalists arbitrarily detained for their work across the globe. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Gwen Ifill Award for ‘Extraordinary and Sustained Achievement in the Cause of Press Freedom’ from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Handling ‘Celebrityhood’
Despite her incredible work, media coverage of Clooney often focuses on her outfits and her marriage. She handles the sexist coverage with calm. “Marriage has been wonderful. I have in my husband a partner who is incredibly inspirational and supportive, and we have a home filled with love and laughter. It is a joy beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I feel so lucky to have found a great love in my life, and to be a mother — this is how I get my balance,” she said to ‘TIME’.
Regarding her increased public profile, she reasons that all she can try and do is turn the spotlight to what is important. “If I am at a work function and reporting of it focuses on irrelevant issues, there’s not much I can do about that. Since I can’t control it, my approach is just not to dwell on it and just get on with my work and my life and hope that attitudes will catch up. And I do actually feel like there is a female solidarity that has built up on these issues where other women will sort of call that out in a way that maybe wouldn’t have happened five or 10 years ago. So attitudes are changing.”
Dream Team
The couple first met in 2013 at his home near Lake Como, Italy,after a mutual friend brought her to visit. They began corresponding via email and had their first date in London. A quick romance culminated in marriage in Italy in 2014, and the birth of their twins, Ella and Alexander, in 2017. He has repeatedly expressed his deep love and admiration for his wife, calling her “the most extraordinary, smart, brilliant, beautiful woman” he’s ever met and stating he “couldn’t be happier” with her. In 2016, the Clooneys founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which currently works in 40 countries. According to the foundation’s website, it was founded “because we believe in a world where human rights are protected and no one is above the law. Justice, like war, must be waged; it doesn’t just happen on its own. So we gather evidence of mass human rights abuses, provide free legal support to victims and work to ensure that perpetrators are held to account. The fight for justice has some difficult foes and we are staring down some alarming global trends.” The foundation is actively investigating war crimes in Ukraine, monitoring sham trials targeting women and journalists and fighting against a global trend of authoritarianism that seeks to punish those who speak truth to power. According to its 2022 Internal Revenue Service filings, the foundation received nearly $10 million in donations and grants and spent nearly $4 million on its programmes.
Inspiring Hope
With a name that translates to hope, she finds encouragement in the courage of the people she represents. In her students she sees a generation that is not only much more politically engaged but also as one that sees themselves as agents of change. “That gives me hope because they’re the ones we have to rely on in the future,” she points out.
Her advice to young women is to reach for the stars, believe in themselves, and know that the only thing they can regret is not trying. She advises, “A lot of success is down to luck and hard work, but it’s also down to having the courage to go for it. Even if you don’t know if you can do it. Even if you’ve never done it before. Even if you don’t know anyone who’s done it. Just shifting your thinking away from “Why me?” and instead to “Why not me?”
