High-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has resigned from her position as the U.K.’s Special Envoy on Media Freedom.
Clooney, who is married to actor George, wrote a letter to U.K. foreign secretary Dominic Raab to submit her resignation, citing the government’s intention to breach international law through the internal market bill as the main factor.
Clooney said it was “lamentable” that Boris Johnson was contemplating overriding the Brexit agreement he signed last year.
RELATED: George And Amal Clooney Donate More Than $1 Million To Coronavirus Relief Efforts
She also pointed out she couldn’t be telling others to “respect and enforce” legal obligations when the U.K. “declares it does not intend to do so itself.”
The lawyer’s resignation letter included, “I have been dismayed to learn that the government intends to pass legislation – the internal market bill – which, if enacted, would, by the government’s own admission, ‘break international law.’
“I was also concerned to note the position taken by the government that although it is an ‘established principle of international law that a state is obliged to discharge its treaty obligations in good faith,’ the U.K.’s ‘parliament is sovereign as a matter of domestic law and can pass legislation which is in breach of the U.K.’s treaty obligations.’
“Although the government has suggested that the intended violation of international law is ‘specific and limited,’ it is lamentable for the U.K. to be speaking of its intention to violate an international treaty signed by the prime minister less than a year ago.”
Clooney added that, despite deferring her resignation until she’d discussed this matter with Raab directly, she insisted she was eventually left with no alternative.
Her letter continued, “I am disappointed to have to do so because I have always been proud of the U.K.’s reputation as a champion of the international legal order, and of the culture of fair play for which it is known. 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 U.K. declares that it does not intend to do so itself.”
Read the full letter, shared by Deadline, here.
