Lebanese-British human rights lawyer, Amal Alamuddin Clooney, announced that she was one of the panel of experts requested by the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Karim Khan, to evaluate evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.
Clooney commented: “My approach is not to provide continuous commentary on my work, but to let the work speak for itself,” while the International Criminal Court prosecutor thanked her in his statement.
In a separate statement on the “Clooney Foundation for Justice” website, Clooney said that she assisted the International Criminal Court in evaluating the evidence that led to its decision to issue arrest warrants.
Clooney, the daughter of businessman Ramzi Alamuddin and wife of American actor George Clooney, added: “Despite our diverse personal backgrounds, the legal findings we reached were unanimous.”
Along with other members of the panel of experts, Clooney published an article in the British newspaper “Financial Times,” which included support for the International Criminal Court’s prosecutions regarding war crimes in the conflict between Israel and “Hamas,” which erupted on October 7th in the worst such flare-up in the region in decades.
Clooney added: “The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and applies to every country in the world regardless of the reasons for the conflict,” explaining that the committee consists of experts in international humanitarian law and international criminal law, and two of its members are former judges at the criminal tribunals in The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based, adding that their decision was unanimous.
Clooney is a lawyer specializing in international law and human rights. She represents plaintiffs before international courts, including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights. Born in Beirut in 1978 to a Druze family from Baakline in the Shouf district, she moved with her family to the United Kingdom during the Lebanese Civil War. After graduating from university, she entered the legal field and held positions in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 2014, Amal married the global actor George Clooney. In addition to her work at the court, Clooney provides advice to governments and individuals on legal issues in her areas of expertise, and has been ranked in legal directories as a leading lawyer in international human rights law, public international law, and international criminal law. She is also described as a “brilliant legal mind, a born leading lawyer, and a rare combination of intellectual depth and pragmatism.”
Clooney has worked on several prominent human rights cases in recent years, including the first and only trials in the world where members of the “ISIS” organization were convicted of committing genocide against the Yazidis, in addition to cases related to genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and in Armenia.
