Our Story : Clooney Foundation for Justice

We founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice because we believe in a world where human rights are protected and no one is above the law.

Justice, like war, must be waged; it doesn’t just happen on its own. So we gather evidence of mass human rights abuses, provide free legal support to victims and work to ensure that perpetrators are held to account. The fight for justice has some difficult foes and we are staring down some alarming global trends.

Since it was founded CFJ has grown every year, and now works in more than 40 countries. We are actively investigating war crimes in Ukraine, monitoring sham trials targeting women and journalists and fighting against a global trend of authoritarianism that seeks to punish those who speak truth to power.

Amal Clooney talks to Nadia Murad at the UN

For many of the causes we take on, it can be years before we see a clear path to justice.

CFJ continues to work on issues that have long faded from the headlines. This includes representing Yazidi women who were raped and enslaved by ISIS, supporting survivors of atrocities in Congo and Sudan, and battling the epidemic of discrimination and violence against women and girls worldwide.

We are in the fight for justice for the long haul, no matter how difficult the journey.

We founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice to hold perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable for their crimes, and to help victims in their fight for justice.
Amal and George Clooney

Our Story - Clooney Foundation For Justice

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Our Initiatives

Here at the Clooney Foundation for Justice, we provide free legal support to victims of abuses of power. Each of our programs aims to fight systemic injustice against vulnerable communities: journalists, women and girls, democracy defenders, LGBTQ+ persons and minorities.

When journalists are locked up for doing their job, we try to get them out of prison. When women and girls are denied equal treatment, we help them fight for their rights through the courts.

TrialWatch

When journalists are locked up just for doing their job, we try to get them out of prison.

Our TrialWatch initiative monitors criminal trials in over 40 countries across the globe. The world’s leading legal experts use the data gathered by these monitors to grade the trials and expose those that are a sham. We then work with local lawyers to free those who are unjustly imprisoned. And we are building a Global Justice Index to rank countries’ justice systems and advocate for systemic change.

TrialWatch

The Docket

When minorities are targeted for genocide, we help to trigger trials against the perpetrators.

Our Docket program gathers evidence of war crimes and genocide, from Ukraine to the Congo, Darfur, to Venezuela and Iraq, shares it with prosecutors, and represents survivors in trials once perpetrators are in the dock.

The Docket

Waging Justice For Women

A collage showing different women whom the Clooney Foundation for Justice supported around the world.

When young girls are denied the right to study, work, or marry when they want, we help them fight for their rights through the courts.

Our Waging Justice for Women initiative works hand-in-hand with young women in Africa to pursue their rights through the courts and run ‘women for women’ legal aid clinics that provide free legal support to women and girls who are victims of discrimination.

Waging Justice For Women

George and Amal Clooney onstage at the inaugural Albies in 2022

Amal & George

Our foundation is committed to helping to bring to justice the perpetrators of atrocities in Ukraine. Ukrainians demand and have every right to expect their day in court—and to have access to funds to rebuild their lives.
— Co-Founders of CFJ

Our Impact

CFJ works in more than 40 countries. Our impact can be seen every time a journalist is freed, a victim of abuse is compensated or a perpetrator is jailed because of our work.

Albie Sachs speaking onstage at the inaugural Albies in 2022

Justice Albie Sachs

It’s not enough that we liberate the justice system from its own imperfections, that sense of humanity has to be there. And George and Amal I feel that so strongly in everything that you do.
— Human Rights Activist & Lawyer

Our Impact

The Albies adds a new dimension to our work, casting a protective spotlight on human rights defenders at risk

ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC speaking at a microphone

Karim Ahmad Khan

I have the great honour that Amal accepted an invitation to be my Special Advisor on Sudan, which is a testament for the many years of work that she has done in Sudan and of course also her husband George Clooney and the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
— Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court

Our Impact

CFJ Co-President Amal Clooney and CFJ staff represented 126 Darfuri survivors at the International Criminal Court in the first case involving crimes against civilians in Darfur.

Darren Walker

George and Amal Clooney are warriors for justice, fighting against inequality, authoritarianism, and all the forces fighting democracy. For those of us who believe in democracy [and] equality, the work of the Clooney Foundation for Justice is essential.
— President of the Ford Foundation & CFJ Board Member

Our Impact

The Albies adds a new dimension to our work, casting a protective spotlight on human rights defenders at risk

Our impact can be seen every time a journalist is freed, a victim of abuse is compensated or a perpetrator is jailed because of our work.