‘DISMAYED’

‘Disappointed’ Amal Clooney Resigns as U.K.’s Special Envoy Over Brexit Bill

Says she can no longer “urge other states to respect and enforce international obligations while the U.K. declares that it does not intend to do so itself.”

Human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney has resigned from her gig as the United Kingdom’s special envoy on media freedom over a British bill that officials have admitted would break international law. If passed, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s legislation, called the Internal Market Bill, would override certain aspects of the U.K.’s Brexit deal with the European Union and would endanger the Good Friday Agreement that forged a truce in Northern Ireland and threaten to reimpose a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. Clooney, who is also known as the wife of actor George Clooney, said in her statement that “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.” She added that as she has “received no assurance that any change of position is imminent, I have no alternative but to resign from my position.”

“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,” she continued. “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.”