George and Amal speaking at the Skoll Foundation conference in Oxford today

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    Not far from the Sonning home - and of course Amal's degree is from there

And the Hollywood Reporter reporting on the event...


   https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/george-clooney-amal-war-truth-abortion-justice-1235869733/

[size=52]George and Amal Clooney on “War on Truth,” Arizona Abortion Ban[/size]

The star told the Skoll World Forum that storytelling is about "finding a way to relate to people things that they can understand and not overwhelm them with peas and carrots."

[size=10][size=13]BY GEORG SZALAI
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APRIL 12, 2024 8:57AM


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(L-R) George Clooney and Amal Clooney KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES




George Clooney and Amal Clooney, in their roles as co-founders of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, spoke about their work “waging justice” at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England on Friday.
“It’s nice to be in a room with people that get shit done,” the Hollywood star said early on during the appearance.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice, whose mission is to provide free legal support and advocacy to victims of genocide, unlawful imprisonment, and other human rights abuses, started 2024 with a new executive leadership team.

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The foundation’s work is about “holding people’s feet to the fire,” the actor said, highlighting that “it’s a lot of failing and then finally succeeding.” He emphasized that the couple and their team have “the patience” for that.
“Finding ways, levers” to have an impact can often be indirect, George Clooney pointed out. “You can’t guilt really shitty human beings into being good people,” he said. “You can’t go say, ‘Omar al-Bashir, you’re a bad guy, you’ve committed genocide, you’re a terrible guy, stop!’ And he will.” That was a reference to a former military officer and politician who served as Sudan’s head of state in various forms. “You can’t get the Sultan of Brunei to act on his own,” he added. “But what you can do is you can guilt the shit out of people that do business with them.”
Explained Clooney: “So you go to the cruise lines and gas lines and you go, ‘The same shit that’s happening to the hotels that the Sultan of Brunei owns is going to happen to you.’ And then they go to the Sultan of Brunei and go, ‘Dude, what are you doing? Knock it off!’ And that’s how you actually get it to change.”
Amal Clooney, who recalled getting her law degree in Oxford 24 years ago, explained why the Clooney Foundation is using the phrase “waging justice,” saying: “We use that verb very deliberately because it’s a fight. And we think of it as a process where we have to gather our forces and gather allies and be really determined like you do when you’re fighting a war.”
She highlighted that warfare is just the most obvious example of the rule of law breaking down. “We’re living through a time when we have more violent conflicts than at any time since the Second World War,” Amal Clooney emphasized. “2 billion people, a quarter of the world’s population, is living through violent conflict, and we see women and children increasingly, on the frontlines.”

She then outlined other challenges and problems that she is committed to take on. “I also think there’s a war on truth and truth-tellers and journalists, and we need to fight against that as well,” Clooney said. “And in too many places, there’s a war on women, and women are still fighting the most basic battles for their freedom.”
She then warned about a loss of women’s rights, arguing: “We see reversals in things like women’s rights, not just in Afghanistan, but also in places like the United States.” This led her husband George to interject, “Arizona, apparently.” That was a reference to a recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate a law from 1864 that bans nearly all abortions in the state. “You can’t take anything for granted,” Amal Clooney concluded.
She suggested to people who are upset about the state of the world and human right to tap into that emotion. “Make it actionable anger,” she recommended.
Her husband also cautioned about other trends. “We’re at a time where countries, governments are using the judiciary as a way of getting away with the things that dictators used to get away with,” he told the event.
George Clooney was also asked about the importance of storytelling to get important messages to more people, mentioning his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, which he directed and which portrays the conflict between journalist Edward R. Murrow and anti-Communist U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. “Good Night, and Good Luck I wrote because I was being called a traitor to my country by my own country for being against the war in Iraq,” he shared. “The idea was anybody who spoke out against the war in 2003 was a traitor, and it wasn’t really fun. They were picketing my movies, and all that kind of stuff.”

He then explained the film’s goal: “So we wrote it, because we liked the idea that it has to be entertaining, people have to be engaged. You can’t go to Darfur and talk about 300,000 people dead because it just glazes over people’s faces. But when you go there, you tell the story about one kid who comes over and pulls on your finger and says, ‘When will you be back?’ And I said, ‘We’ll be back soon.’ And she just giggled and said, ‘You always say that.’ Those kinds of stories matter to people.”
Concluded Clooney: “Storytelling is about finding a way to relate to people things that they can understand and not overwhelm them with peas and carrots.”
The Clooneys were among the featured speakers of the closing plenary session of the event, organized by Participant chairman Jeff Skoll‘s Skoll Foundation under the theme: “Let’s come together to accelerate innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.”
Other featured speakers at the 2024 Skoll World Forum included music star Nile Rodgers, Mexican singer Lila Downs, and former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
A preview for the Skoll World Forum closing event had highlighted: “Truly transformational change requires ongoing collective action to create and sustain momentum in our world. We’ll hear from leaders and luminaries on how we can cultivate opportunities to drive enduring change.”

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As an American , I think we can't get any worse and we manage to just do worse.
The arizona abortion ban is unbelievable people will use anything to get what they want.

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Insights from Skoll World Forum 2024’s Inspirational Closing

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StartingUpGood will be providing key takeaways and lessons from some of our favorite Skoll World Forum sessions, as well as post-event recaps of themes and action steps. Check back for additional insights as we continue our forum coverage.

The 21st annual Skoll World Forum brings together visionary leaders, innovators, and global change-makers to drive social impact.
The 2024 Skoll World Forum concluded with an inspiring plenary focused on collective action and the power of storytelling.

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Key Takeaways

Focus on Improving Global Health Outcomes

• The world is experiencing global health setbacks in the fights against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis due to factors such as political polarization threatening funding for programs like PEPFAR, climate change increasing malaria risk, and conflicts driving the spread of tuberculosis in refugee populations.
  
• Peter Sands described the Global Fund’s unique partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities. He highlighted its success, having helped save over 50 million lives cumulatively since its founding in 2002.
  
• The Global Fund prioritizes inclusive, country-driven models that include local community organizations that engage with affected communities. If you want to hear from civil society and the people on the ground then you have to give them real power.
  

Collective Action for Social Justice

• The Clooney Foundation for Justice works to fight human rights abuses through legal action and storytelling. It collaborates with private sector partners and other philanthropic leaders to advance human rights.
  
• Amal Clooney discussed cases involving ISIS victims and journalists, emphasizing the importance of punishing genocide and crimes against humanity. She emphasized the importance of joined-up efforts among those fighting for justice, noting that adversaries are often more innovative and united.
  
• George Clooney highlighted the difficulty of guilting bad actors into change and the need to target their financial interests instead. He acknowledged the long, slow process of achieving justice but maintained hope in the “long arc of justice” ultimately bending towards progress.
  
• Actionable anger, learning from failure, and unity among those fighting for justice were identified as key strategies for advancing social justice.
  
• Flexibility and adaptability are crucial when strategies to fight injustice lose their effectiveness. As Gayle Smith explained, the people who fight for change in the world have to realize that sometimes change is something they have to do, too.
  
• Muhammad Yunus provided a video message about the legal harassment he and his colleagues are facing in Bangladesh with a jail sentence.
  

The Power of Storytelling and Connecting to Humanity

• Speakers highlighted the power of storytelling to engage audiences and relate to people’s struggles to drive social change.
  
• Zolelwa Sifumba shared her powerful story of contracting MDR tuberculosis as a medical student, the challenges she faced to survive this disease, and the impact had on her life as an activist.
  
• The importance of prayer, ceremony, and connecting to ancestors was emphasized, with speakers from For Freedoms leading the audience in reflection.
  
• Music and dance were incorporated, with a performance by Yemi Alade, Award-winning African musician, closing the event.
  

Conclusion
The closing plenary aimed to inspire change-makers to continue their work with renewed conviction, hope, and joy, while not overlooking the daunting challenges our world continues to face. It celebrated the extraordinary leadership and contributions of women throughout the forum, and promoted collective action from all who participated in person and virtually.
Featured Speakers

• Amal and George Clooney, Clooney Foundation for Justice
  
• Claudia Peña, Executive Director, For Freedoms
  
• Eric Gottesman, Co-founder and Artistic Director, For Freedoms
  
• Zolelwa Sifumba, MDR TB survivor, Global Health activist and advocate
  
• Peter Sands, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
  
• Raj Panjabi, Board Member, Skoll Foundation; President Emeritus, Last Mile Health
  
• Yemi Alade, Award-winning Nigerian Afropop Singer, Songwriter, Actress and Activist
  
• Gayle E. Smith, Chief Executive Officer, The ONE Campaign
  

Our StartingUpGood team believes that events and conferences are great places to learn, share ideas, and innovate. We are committed to using our innovative tech tools to share key insights and learnings from top conferences. This article uses Otter.ai to create transcripts and various LLMs to help identify key takeaways. All content for the article was hand-curated and checked for quality.