Amal Clooney hits Trump administration over United Nations resolution
International Human Rights lawyer Amal Clooney took a shot at the Trump administration Tuesday for threatening to veto an earlier version of a United Nations resolution condemning sexual violence used as a weapon of war.
Speaking at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Clooney urged the countries to sign the resolution.
{mosads}“This is your Nuremberg moment. Your chance to stand on the right side of history,” Clooney said, according to a video shared by NowThis. “You owe it to the thousands of women and girls who must watch ISIS members shave off their beards and go back to their normal lives while they, the victims, never can.”
The resolution was adopted with 13 of the 15 countries voting in favor of it, with China and Russia abstaining.
Though it ultimately passed, it was a watered-down version of the resolution after the U.S. mission from the Trump administration threatened to veto it because it contained language referencing “reproductive health” services for survivors of rape.
The Trump administration has in recent months opposed language that mentions sexual or reproductive health, saying that it implies support for abortion.
A part of the resolution creating a way to monitor and report sexual violence in conflicts was removed.
Clooney called out two Trump administration officials by name for their stances on helping female victims report such instances.
“This council can refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, as many Yazidi survivors have called for,” Clooney said, referring to the rapes of young women at the hands of ISIS fighters. “Unfortunately, this seems increasingly unlikely. The United States government has recently said, through its national security adviser John Bolton and its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the ICC is ‘dead to us.’ ”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..