Amal UN announcement to put ISIS fighters on trial

[size=34]Amal Clooney addresses diplomats at the United Nations over plans to put 20,000 ISIS fighters on trial in Iraq[/size]

• Human rights lawyer, 41, addressed 20 diplomats at the UN on Thursday 
  
  
• She sat alongside Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok 
  
  
• Blok is pushing initiative to have 20,000 ISIS fighters put on trial in Iraq 
  
  
• Amal Clooney has represented Yazidi women forced into sexual slavery by ISIS
  
  
• On Tuesday, Clooney appeared at UN to urge protections for journalists 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:33 EDT, 26 September 2019 | UPDATED: 16:45 EDT, 26 September 2019

     



Amal Clooney appeared at the United Nations in New York for the second time this week on Thursday.
The human rights lawyer addressed a meeting of high-level officials from 20 countries who convened to discuss placing ISIS fighters on trial in Iraq.
Clooney sat next to Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok, who has taken the initiative of setting up possible tribunals for some 20,000 ISIS members.
Blok is working alongside his Iraqi counterpart, Ali Alhakim, who helped organize a meeting that included diplomats from 20 countries, according to the Dutch news site NRC.
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Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok (left) and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney (right) attend a meeting about ISIS at the United Nations in New York on Thursday
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Clooney addressed officials who discussed a Dutch-Iraqi proposal to put 20,000 ISIS fighters on trial in Iraq
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Clooney has long advocated for bringing ISIS fighters and leaders to justice before international courts
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Clooney has represented Yazidi women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by ISIS
There are an estimated 20,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq - 1,000 of them being foreigners from European and other Western countries. 

Clooney, the wife of actor George Clooney, was also scheduled to address the officials on Thursday.
For years, Amal Clooney has represented ethnic Yazidi women who were taken captive and forced into sexual slavery by ISIS.
Yazidis are a minority community in Iraq who were recognized by the UN as victims of genocide by ISIS.
Clooney represents Yazidi women and girls who were held in the house of Umm Sayyaf, the wife of Islamic State financier Abu Sayyaf.
Kayla Mueller, an American humanitarian aid worker, was also held there for a time. In February 2015, reports surfaced indicating that she had been killed while in ISIS captivity.


Amal Clooney has long advocated that ISIS fighters and officials responsible for crimes against Yazidi women and girls be brought to trial.
Clooney also made an appearance at the UN on Tuesday to speak out about press freedoms.
The 41-year-old lawyer told a panel that journalists worldwide faced danger in countries with unstable political climates.
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Clooney on Tuesday addressed a panel discussion at the UN about press freedom around the world
[size=18]Amal Clooney says leaders with liberal values need to step up





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‘Our research targets laws being used every day to punish journalists for their work,’ Clooney said.
‘Laws like criminal libel, vague or overboard hate speech laws, so-called fake news laws, and laws that muzzle the media by imposing arbitrary conditions on ownership, accreditation and funding.’
Though she didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, Clooney indirectly slammed the president for his attacks on the press, whom he calls ‘fake news.’
‘Such laws are part of a rising drumbeat of legal assault on journalists and they are particularly open to abuse when senior officials vilify the media, creating a toxic environment in which individual journalists are incredibly vulnerable to attack,’ Clooney said.