George and Amal's Trial Watch to be launched at Columbia Law School in April

For opposition figures, journalists and vulnerable communities, a country’s judicial system can offer protection from authoritarian leadership. But courts can also be used to legitimize the silencing and suppression of unwelcome dissent.

Independent trial monitors can document abuse, and their presence in a courtroom can also encourage transparency and fairness. But monitoring is expensive and time-intensive work, and it is often reserved for high-profile cases. As a consequence, data about where and when abuses take place is uneven at best.

Enter the Clooney Foundation for Justice—the foundation run by international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her actor husband George Clooney—and a new initiative called TrialWatch, which aims to expand the presence of trained observers in courtrooms around the world “where trials pose a high risk of human rights violations.”

TrialWatch, which will formally launch on April 25 at Columbia Law School, will train a global network of monitors to observe trials and contribute to an international data collection effort, while establishing a set of best practices for monitoring trials anywhere in the world. It will focus on trials that target journalists, human rights defenders, members of the LGBTQ community, women and girls, and religious minorities, and a given trial will be graded by a team of legal experts based on international fair trial standards. Ultimately, TrialWatch will also set up an “Index” to rank how countries perform, and advocate against the use of courts to oppress vulnerable groups, silence speech, or target political opponents.

Perhaps most importantly, the initiative will provide much-needed funding and bring an array of existing judicial monitoring efforts under a single umbrella.

“Governments get away too easily with imprisoning opposition figures, silencing critics, and persecuting vulnerable groups through the courts,” Amal Clooney said in announcing the initiative in December. And yet, even as courts are “increasingly being used as a tool of oppression,” as TrialWatch explains on its website, “there is no comprehensive global program scrutinizing the courts of the world; nor is there a global standard for how trial monitoring should be conducted.”

TrialWatch will be run in partnership with the American Bar Association, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Columbia, where Amal Clooney has been a visiting law professor since 2015. It has also joined forces with Microsoft to develop technology to document trends in judicial abuses and fund a fellowship.

Trial monitoring is an expensive proposition. A single court case, including pre-trial hearings, might drag on for months or years. Proceedings can be convoluted and secretive, and understanding them can require legal and local expertise. Cases that ensnare well-known opposition figures, journalists or foreigners are more likely to be scrutinized than, say, the prosecution of a gay man on morality charges. The American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights has in the past sent monitors to cases brought against human rights defenders in retaliation for their work, but the effort has been limited. The ABA says that the resources that will come with TrialWatch will allow it to expand its scope.

Meanwhile, there is a growing consensus that unfair trials demand a more pronounced global response. The U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals include ensuring “equal access to justice for all”—something that was left out of the SDG’s precursor, the Millennium Development Goals.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice was launched in 2016. Thus far, it has focused on refugee issues, including sponsoring the resettlement of Syrian and Yazidi refugees in the United States. The foundation has also endowed a $1 million “Combating Hate” legal fellowship at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Amal Clooney’s clients have included Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, a Yazidi woman who was kidnapped and forced into sex slavery for ISIS, and two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar who had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of Rohingya Muslims.

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Thanks pan and thank you annemarie for pasting the article.

It sounds good to me !

It's so reassuring to know that Amal & George
are "at one" in their desires to put their money
to good use like that.......




And crap articles say " The Clooney's are on their way
to divorcing" 
Bah Humbug !

I think this a brilliant project and needed NOW more than ever.  And doing it through Columbia U is perfect!

Joanna, I’ll second that ‘Bah Humbug’! 

...and I'll third it!

And don't forget to look out for them this coming Thursday in Edinburgh receiving an award for their charity work from the Postcode Lottery charity at their annual gala..

Thursday
Already?

Time flies when you're having fun!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

George Clooney to return to Edinburgh for award
By Angie BrownBBC Scotland, Edinburgh and East reporter

• 19 December 2018
  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Image copyrightROB MCDOUGALL/PEOPLE'S POSTCODE LOTTERYImage captionGeorge Clooney last visited Scotland in 2015
Hollywood star George Clooney and his wife are to collect an award for their charity work at the People's Postcode Lottery Charity Gala in Edinburgh.
Hundreds of people turned out to welcome George Clooney to the Scottish capital in November 2015 when he visited the capital.
It has now been revealed the actor is to return to Edinburgh on 14 March.
He will be with his wife, the international human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney.
They will be honoured for their international humanitarian work through the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
In a statement, George and Amal Clooney said: "We are thrilled to be attending the People's Postcode Lottery Charity Gala in Edinburgh.
"It is a perfect setting to highlight the urgent need to protect millions of the world's most vulnerable people from human rights abuses."
The couple will be interviewed by broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky during the Charity Gala. Ms Kaplinsky has been an ambassador for Save the Children since 2010.
Previous speakers at the annual event have included His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Sir David Attenborough, Dame Emma Thompson and Chelsea Clinton.

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Players of People's Postcode Lottery have raised:
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• More than £371m for charities and good causes in Britain and around the world. The total is expected to exceed £400m during 2019
  

• £1,325,000 for George Clooney's human rights charity, Not On Our Watch, which he founded along with fellow Hollywood stars, including Brad Pitt and Matt Damon
  

• More than £6m in funding for Save the Children
  

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[size]
Clara Govier, managing director of People's Postcode Lottery, said: "We are thrilled that George and Amal Clooney will be joining us in Edinburgh for the Gala, which promises to be one of the highlights of the charity calendar.
"Our players support thousands of charities and good causes and the event provides us with an important opportunity to celebrate the vital work they do in communities throughout Great Britain and around the world."[/size]

Really looking forward to seeing them together at this event.  Hope we get some good pics and video 

Just to get back to Trial Watch and it's inception, I was very impressed to see that not only Columbia was involved, but the International Bar Association too. You can't get much higher than that!

That is very impressive.