International human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, wife of George Clooney, is bringing former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s case to the United Nations, according to a report by Manila Bulletin.
Amal Clooney is even asking the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), a body created by the UN Commission on Human Rights, to consider GMA’s detention case as urgent, instead of treating it like a regular case.
According to GMA’s legal counsel, Amal started working on the former President’s case after making a vow sometime in May to bring GMA’s plight to the UN, as Arroyo’s lawyers are preparing to file a motion for house arrest, reportedly being strongly supported by Congress.
Amal Clooney also recently visited GMA at her hospital suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, where the former President had been detained for almost three years now.
According to the report, former President Arroyo’s lawyers also said that Amal believes that GMA is a victim of “political repression”, and that reportedly, many lawyers see “no reason to doubt it”. They also added that Amal reportedly believes that the Philippine government was guilty of violating the human rights of GMA, and named the Philippine State as a respondent in the complaint she filed before the UN on February 26.
Amal Clooney is currently a visiting professor for a law on human rights class at Columbia University. Aside from GMA, her list of high-profile clients include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukraine prime minister. She and George Clooney wed September last year.
What do you think of this? Do you agree that GMA’s case should be brought to the UN?
