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AMAL CLOONEY TO REPRESENT ARMENIA IN EUROPEAN COURT
Huffington Post
Dec 29 2014
Posted: 12/29/2014 11:53 am EST
By Harut Sassounian
Here is a surprising news item being disclosed in this column -- Amal
Ramzi Alamuddin, wife of prominent actor and human rights activist
George Clooney, will be one of the attorneys representing Armenia
next month at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Some readers may wonder how a woman described by Elle magazine as
having "stunning looks, flirty dresses, tailored pants, colorful heels,
and gorgeous hair" is involved in such a complex legal matter?
It may be astonishing to most people that Amal Alamuddin, now Mrs.
Clooney, is much more than a pretty face! In fact, she is perfectly
qualified for this critical assignment.
Mrs. Clooney is a highly regarded attorney specializing in
international law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition. She has
been involved in several major lawsuits, such as return of the Elgin
Marbles from Great Britain to Greece, and defending Julian Assange of
WikiLeaks and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She
has also worked with the Prosecutor of the UN Special Tribunal for
Lebanon, and the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Amal was born in Lebanon to a Druze father and Sunni Muslim mother in
1978. At the age of two, her family moved to the United Kingdom. She
received her law degree from New York University School of Law and
clerked at the International Court of Justice (World Court). After
returning to London in 2010, she became a barrister at the Doughty
Street Chambers. She served as advisor to Kofi Annan, UN Special Envoy
on Syria, and as Counsel to the 2013 UN Drone Inquiry team. She is
fluent in English, French and Arabic. Her marriage to George Clooney
in September 2014 made worldwide headlines.
With such impeccable credentials, Mrs. Clooney will be a great asset
to Armenia's legal team in Strasbourg, in the appeal of Perincek vs.
Switzerland before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human
Rights on January 28.
The case involves the conviction by Swiss courts of Dogu Perincek, a
minor Turkish political party leader, who had travelled to Switzerland
in 2005 with the explicit intent of denying the truth of the Armenian
Genocide. In 2008, Perincek appealed the Swiss ruling to the European
Court of Human Rights. A majority of five out of seven ECHR judges
ruled on Dec. 17, 2013 that Switzerland had violated Perincek's right
to free expression.
This ruling was an unfair and unacceptable double standard, as the
court considered denial of the Jewish Holocaust a crime, but Armenian
Genocide denial an infringement on free speech. The five judges who
ruled against Switzerland made countless judgmental and factual
errors, misrepresenting Perincek's allegations, misinterpreting
Switzerland's laws and court rulings, lacking basic knowledge of the
Armenian Genocide, and repeatedly contradicting themselves. Two of
the seven judges disagreed with the majority's ruling and submitted
a comprehensive 19-page report on the Armenian Genocide, siding with
the Swiss court.
On March 17, 2014, Switzerland decided to appeal the ruling to ECHR's
17-judge Grand Chamber, to defend the integrity of its laws and the
country's legal system. Specifically, the Swiss government challenged
the court's decision on three grounds:
1) ECHR had never before dealt with the juridical qualification
of genocide and the scope of freedom of expression; 2) The undue
restriction of "the margin of appreciation" available to Switzerland
under ECHR's jurisprudence; 3) The establishment of 'artificial
distinctions' -- in the absence of an international verdict, ECHR
should have considered the Turkish Court's 1919 guilty verdicts against
the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide as evidence related to World
Court's jurisprudence.
Last year, when ECHR's lower court was considering Perincek's case,
Armenia did not participate. Turkey, however, intervened by submitting
extensive documentation questioning the veracity of the Armenian
Genocide. This time around Armenia will take part with a strong legal
team, which includes Geoffrey Robertson QC, a preeminent international
lawyer and author of the remarkable book, An Inconvenient Genocide:
Who Now Remembers the Armenians? Robertson will be joined in court by
his associate Amal Clooney, and two Armenian government representatives
Gevorg Kostanyan and Emil Babayan.
It is imperative that on the eve of the Armenian Genocide's Centennial
in 2015, ECHR's Grand Chamber reverse the lower court's flawed ruling,
restoring the integrity of Swiss laws and preventing Turkey and
Perincek from exporting their genocide denialism to Europe and beyond!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harut-sassounian/amal-clooney-to-represent_b_6369922.html
Huffington Post
Dec 29 2014
Posted: 12/29/2014 11:53 am EST
By Harut Sassounian
Here is a surprising news item being disclosed in this column -- Amal
Ramzi Alamuddin, wife of prominent actor and human rights activist
George Clooney, will be one of the attorneys representing Armenia
next month at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Some readers may wonder how a woman described by Elle magazine as
having "stunning looks, flirty dresses, tailored pants, colorful heels,
and gorgeous hair" is involved in such a complex legal matter?
It may be astonishing to most people that Amal Alamuddin, now Mrs.
Clooney, is much more than a pretty face! In fact, she is perfectly
qualified for this critical assignment.
Mrs. Clooney is a highly regarded attorney specializing in
international law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition. She has
been involved in several major lawsuits, such as return of the Elgin
Marbles from Great Britain to Greece, and defending Julian Assange of
WikiLeaks and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She
has also worked with the Prosecutor of the UN Special Tribunal for
Lebanon, and the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Amal was born in Lebanon to a Druze father and Sunni Muslim mother in
1978. At the age of two, her family moved to the United Kingdom. She
received her law degree from New York University School of Law and
clerked at the International Court of Justice (World Court). After
returning to London in 2010, she became a barrister at the Doughty
Street Chambers. She served as advisor to Kofi Annan, UN Special Envoy
on Syria, and as Counsel to the 2013 UN Drone Inquiry team. She is
fluent in English, French and Arabic. Her marriage to George Clooney
in September 2014 made worldwide headlines.
With such impeccable credentials, Mrs. Clooney will be a great asset
to Armenia's legal team in Strasbourg, in the appeal of Perincek vs.
Switzerland before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human
Rights on January 28.
The case involves the conviction by Swiss courts of Dogu Perincek, a
minor Turkish political party leader, who had travelled to Switzerland
in 2005 with the explicit intent of denying the truth of the Armenian
Genocide. In 2008, Perincek appealed the Swiss ruling to the European
Court of Human Rights. A majority of five out of seven ECHR judges
ruled on Dec. 17, 2013 that Switzerland had violated Perincek's right
to free expression.
This ruling was an unfair and unacceptable double standard, as the
court considered denial of the Jewish Holocaust a crime, but Armenian
Genocide denial an infringement on free speech. The five judges who
ruled against Switzerland made countless judgmental and factual
errors, misrepresenting Perincek's allegations, misinterpreting
Switzerland's laws and court rulings, lacking basic knowledge of the
Armenian Genocide, and repeatedly contradicting themselves. Two of
the seven judges disagreed with the majority's ruling and submitted
a comprehensive 19-page report on the Armenian Genocide, siding with
the Swiss court.
On March 17, 2014, Switzerland decided to appeal the ruling to ECHR's
17-judge Grand Chamber, to defend the integrity of its laws and the
country's legal system. Specifically, the Swiss government challenged
the court's decision on three grounds:
1) ECHR had never before dealt with the juridical qualification
of genocide and the scope of freedom of expression; 2) The undue
restriction of "the margin of appreciation" available to Switzerland
under ECHR's jurisprudence; 3) The establishment of 'artificial
distinctions' -- in the absence of an international verdict, ECHR
should have considered the Turkish Court's 1919 guilty verdicts against
the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide as evidence related to World
Court's jurisprudence.
Last year, when ECHR's lower court was considering Perincek's case,
Armenia did not participate. Turkey, however, intervened by submitting
extensive documentation questioning the veracity of the Armenian
Genocide. This time around Armenia will take part with a strong legal
team, which includes Geoffrey Robertson QC, a preeminent international
lawyer and author of the remarkable book, An Inconvenient Genocide:
Who Now Remembers the Armenians? Robertson will be joined in court by
his associate Amal Clooney, and two Armenian government representatives
Gevorg Kostanyan and Emil Babayan.
It is imperative that on the eve of the Armenian Genocide's Centennial
in 2015, ECHR's Grand Chamber reverse the lower court's flawed ruling,
restoring the integrity of Swiss laws and preventing Turkey and
Perincek from exporting their genocide denialism to Europe and beyond!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harut-sassounian/amal-clooney-to-represent_b_6369922.html