George Clooney and Amal Clooney, in their roles as co-founders of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, spoke about their work “waging justice” at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England on Friday.
“It’s nice to be in a room with people that get shit done,” the Hollywood star said early on during the appearance.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice, whose mission is to provide free legal support and advocacy to victims of genocide, unlawful imprisonment, and other human rights abuses, started 2024 with a new executive leadership team.
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The foundation’s work is about “holding people’s feet to the fire,” the actor said, highlighting that “it’s a lot of failing and then finally succeeding.” He emphasized that the couple and their team have “the patience” for that.
“Finding ways, levers” to have an impact can often be indirect, George Clooney pointed out. “You can’t guilt really shitty human beings into being good people,” he said. “You can’t go say, ‘Omar al-Bashir, you’re a bad guy, you’ve committed genocide, you’re a terrible guy, stop!’ And he will.” That was a reference to a former military officer and politician who served as Sudan’s head of state in various forms. “You can’t get the Sultan of Brunei to act on his own,” he added. “But what you can do is you can guilt the shit out of people that do business with them.”
Explained Clooney: “So you go to the cruise lines and gas lines and you go, ‘The same shit that’s happening to the hotels that the Sultan of Brunei owns is going to happen to you.’ And then they go to the Sultan of Brunei and go, ‘Dude, what are you doing? Knock it off!’ And that’s how you actually get it to change.”
Amal Clooney, who recalled getting her law degree in Oxford 24 years ago, explained why the Clooney Foundation is using the phrase “waging justice,” saying: “We use that verb very deliberately because it’s a fight. And we think of it as a process where we have to gather our forces and gather allies and be really determined like you do when you’re fighting a war.”
She highlighted that warfare is just the most obvious example of the rule of law breaking down. “We’re living through a time when we have more violent conflicts than at any time since the Second World War,” Amal Clooney emphasized. “2 billion people, a quarter of the world’s population, is living through violent conflict, and we see women and children increasingly, on the frontlines.”
She then outlined other challenges and problems that she is committed to take on. “I also think there’s a war on truth and truth-tellers and journalists, and we need to fight against that as well,” Clooney said. “And in too many places, there’s a war on women, and women are still fighting the most basic battles for their freedom.”
She then warned about a loss of women’s rights, arguing: “We see reversals in things like women’s rights, not just in Afghanistan, but also in places like the United States.” This led her husband George to interject, “Arizona, apparently.” That was a reference to a recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate a law from 1864 that bans nearly all abortions in the state. “You can’t take anything for granted,” Amal Clooney concluded.
She suggested to people who are upset about the state of the world and human right to tap into that emotion. “Make it actionable anger,” she recommended.
Her husband also cautioned about other trends. “We’re at a time where countries, governments are using the judiciary as a way of getting away with the things that dictators used to get away with,” he told the event.
George Clooney was also asked about the importance of storytelling to get important messages to more people, mentioning his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, which he directed and which portrays the conflict between journalist Edward R. Murrow and anti-Communist U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. “Good Night, and Good Luck I wrote because I was being called a traitor to my country by my own country for being against the war in Iraq,” he shared. “The idea was anybody who spoke out against the war in 2003 was a traitor, and it wasn’t really fun. They were picketing my movies, and all that kind of stuff.”
He then explained the film’s goal: “So we wrote it, because we liked the idea that it has to be entertaining, people have to be engaged. You can’t go to Darfur and talk about 300,000 people dead because it just glazes over people’s faces. But when you go there, you tell the story about one kid who comes over and pulls on your finger and says, ‘When will you be back?’ And I said, ‘We’ll be back soon.’ And she just giggled and said, ‘You always say that.’ Those kinds of stories matter to people.”
Concluded Clooney: “Storytelling is about finding a way to relate to people things that they can understand and not overwhelm them with peas and carrots.”
The Clooneys were among the featured speakers of the closing plenary session of the event, organized by Participant chairman Jeff Skoll‘s Skoll Foundation under the theme: “Let’s come together to accelerate innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.”
Other featured speakers at the 2024 Skoll World Forum included music star Nile Rodgers, Mexican singer Lila Downs, and former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
A preview for the Skoll World Forum closing event had highlighted: “Truly transformational change requires ongoing collective action to create and sustain momentum in our world. We’ll hear from leaders and luminaries on how we can cultivate opportunities to drive enduring change.”
