Human-rights advocate and leading barrister in international law Amal Clooney has been announced as a Cartier Voice, ahead of the 2023 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Ceremony on 10 May. The co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice is scheduled to be one of the featured speakers taking part in the annual event, where this year 32 impact entrepreneurs will be honoured for founding or leading women-run and women-owned businesses with a focus on strong and lasting social or environmental change.
Clooney has gained acclaim for her work leading landmark global human rights cases, seeking justice on behalf of Yazidi victims of ISIS, and representing victims of mass atrocities in Armenia, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as political prisoners and detained journalists.
“Throughout my career as a lawyer, I have sought to advance women’s rights. It seems pretty obvious that this is a worthy area of focus. Whether you believe in human rights, or just prosperity, it is a good idea to try to unshackle half of the population of the world,” she said during her opening remarks. “My goal is equal justice for all, and my philosophy is that justice must be waged, because justice is not inevitable: it doesn’t just happen on its own. We have to fight for it.”
“And in this room tonight, we have some amazing women who are impact entrepreneurs across continents and industries: they are improving food security, refugee integration, female and infant healthcare, they are providing emergency support to women in danger, creating online laboratories for students and tech platforms for teachers. They are all people changing systems, one project at a time. They are people who are not satisfied with the status quo and who are determined to scale the impact they’ve already had,” Clooney added.
“Reading through their profiles, that is the one thing that struck me that they all had in common: their work has already touched so many, but all they can see is that it’s not enough. These women are citizens of the world who will get in the arena, and fight for a better future. They are engines of change, and I am sure they will use the fellowship and community we celebrate tonight as a catalyst. I feel lucky to be in a room with them.”
Learn more about the 2023 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Ceremony on 10 May here.
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