It takes courage to effect real change in the world. PAM aligns with a brave new future, by exploring rare metal. With rare mettle. And by honouring those leading the changes.
AMAL CLOONEY – for her dogged determination
Amal Clooney pursues a better future with, as she calls it, “a dogged determination”. And we agree.
As a British- Lebanese barrister specialising in international law and human rights, she represents clients before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, to name a few.
Many of these clients are victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence.
Clooney currently represents a group of Iraqi victims from the Yazidi community who are seeking accountability for genocide and other crimes perpetrated by ISIS. One of her cases for the Yazidi is alleging complicity in crimes against humanity by French company Lafarge, for funding ISIS to keep a plant open in northern Syria between 2011 and 2014. And in a landmark ruling in 2021, she was co-plaintiff’s and victims’ counsel in the first ever case where a member of ISIS was convicted of genocide and handed a life sentence.
Amal often represents journalists, too, and is leading the international counsel team acting for Maria Ressa, Filipino journalist and CEO of the news website Rappler. Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her ‘courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines’, faces a series of charges that could lead to a 100-year prison sentence.
Not surprisingly, Clooney has just been honoured as one of Time Magazine’s 12 Women of the Year for 2022 — described by Time as “individuals who have reached across communities, generations and borders to fight for a more inclusive and equitable world.”
But nobody puts it better than Amal herself, who says, “You’re coming up against people whose power and existence depends on them continuing to commit serious abuses, and they’re not going to give up. So we definitely can’t…”
Written for Pan Asia Metals by Josh Bryer
