Amal Clooney quits as UK special envoy over 'lamentable' Brexit bill

Amal Clooney has said she is resigning as the UK’s special envoy on media freedom over the Government’s “lamentable” suggestion it could violate international law over the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

In a letter to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Amal Clooney wrote that when she took up her role as Special Envoy on Media Freedom, she did so to assist the UK in championing the right to a free press around the world.

Ms Clooney said her role was intended to help promote action that governments could take to ensure that media freedom around the world was enforced in accordance with international law.

She added that the government's "lamentable" decision to break international law would "embolden autocratic regimes", and had left her in an "untenable position".

“I accepted the role because I believe in the importance of the cause, and appreciate the significant role that the UK has played and can continue to play in promoting the international legal order", she wrote.

“In these circumstances I have been dismayed to learn that the Government intends to pass legislation – the Internal Market Bill – which would, by the Government’s own admission, ‘break international law’ if enacted.

“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 UK’s ‘Parliament is sovereign as a matter of domestic law and can pass legislation which is in breach of the UK’s Treaty obligations’.

“Although the government has suggested that the violation of international law would be ‘specific and limited’, it is lamentable for the UK to be speaking of its intention to violate an international treaty signed by the Prime Minister less than a year ago."

Ms Clooney warned that undermining the rule of law would "fatally puncture" people's faith in the British justice system.

“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 UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself.

“As the President of the Bar Council of England and Wales has affirmed, undermining the rule of law that ‘this country is built on … will fatally puncture people’s faith in our justice system’.

“And it threatens to embolden autocratic regimes that violate international law with devastating consequences all over the world.”

Ms Clooney added that she decided to write her letter of resignation after speaking with Mr Raab directly.

“Out of respect for the professional working relationship I have developed with you and your senior colleagues working on human rights, I deferred writing this letter until I had had a chance to discuss this matter with you directly", she said.

"But having now done so and received no assurance that any change of position is imminent, I have no alternative but to resign from my position."