The barrister, law professor, and co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice joined the 2026 Cartier Women’s Initiative celebrations in Bangkok, to mentor and award fellows from all over the world.
When Amal Clooney enters a room, conversation stops and the atmosphere shifts. Arriving in Bangkok for the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the 48-year-old Beirut-born human rights barrister put women’s empowerment squarely on the table.
“Reports suggest that women’s equality in the workforce would add about $12 trillion to the global economy,” Clooney tells Forbes Australia while sipping tea overlooking the Chao Phraya River.
“We are living through the highest number of violent conflicts since World War II. Seventy-two per cent of the world’s population lives under autocratic rule. We face threats from AI that many of us struggle to even understand. Yet we are trying to solve these crises with only half the talent available to us – with one hand tied behind our back.”
For Clooney, the need for true equality isn’t just a professional crusade. It is a daily, deeply personal reflection.
“I am a mother of boy-girl twins, and for me, justice means that every girl should have the same opportunities in life as her brother.”
Amal Clooney
It is that underlying objective that shapes much of the work that the law professor spearheads at the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she and her husband, George Clooney, co-founded a decade ago. CFJ combat human rights abuses by providing free legal aid in more than 40 countries to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
“We believe in using the law to advance equal rights for women. Any initiative that helps to unleash women’s ability to participate in the workforce and tackle global challenges is one that I support. And this one is particularly impressive,” Clooney says, referring to the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the reason behind her trip to Thailand.
“CWI has now spent more than 14 million dollars funding women entrepreneurs, and their program is holistic – from funding to mentorship, training at INSEAD and great networking opportunities,” she says.
The impact of the CFJ and CWI lies not just in the women they directly empower, but also in the localised multiplier effect. Entrepreneurs can’t thrive without a baseline of safety and stability within their communities, making the work Clooney does the foundation of economic prosperity.
“A single female entrepreneur doesn’t just lift herself out,” Clooney notes. “She shows a whole community what a girl is capable of. And that ripple effect can go a long way.”
This year’s CWI fellows reflect this grassroots, solutions-driven upward mobility. Cristina Campero Peredo, founder of Prosperia in Mexico, engineered an AI-powered screening platform designed to run automated retinal diagnostics at primary care clinics, preventing blindness and offering trustworthy guidance outside major medical hubs.
Louisa Gathecha, the CWI awardee for the Anglophone and Lusophone Africa region, founded Bottle Logistics in Kenya in 2019. Her startup processes industrial and consumer glass waste into manufacturing resources, and has recycled more than 66,400 tonnes of glass.
“The fellowship can be transformative for the social entrepreneurs,” Clooney says. “Some of them have spent years trying to make their ideas a reality, with no capital, infrastructure or support. They are a reminder that the best ideas can come from anywhere, and that grit can take you a long way from where you begin.”
This year, three of the 30 international fellows hailed from our own shores. Rosie Dumbrell, Ruby Riethmuller, and Alexandra Cannizzaro were awarded the top three accolades for the Oceania region, joining Clooney on stage during a celebration at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
The morning after, Clooney held a working breakfast with the fellows, sharing her own experience being a working mum, and revealing where her drive to give a voice to the powerless came from. She shared gratitude for her mother – political journalist Baria Alamuddin – who Clooney says enabled both her education and encouraged her ambition.
The barrister has memories of backpacking through Bangkok in her 20s, before starting her first job as a lawyer in New York City. On this trip, Alamuddin was able to join her daughter and see the work she is doing mentoring impact entrepreneurs.
“I love seeing women cheering on other women and I see it a lot more these days than when I started my career. Mentorship and coalitions help people feel supported at any stage in their career and in my work at the Clooney Foundation for Justice partnerships are the only way to truly scale impact,” Clooney says.
While she attended the 2024 and 2025 CWI celebrations, Clooney’s participation in CWI 2026 signals a strengthening of the relationship, and the international human rights lawyer taking a more hands-on role, giving a keynote, participating in a Dialogues session, and having direct contact with the CWI fellows who are effecting change around the world.
“Each year, I am blown away by the impact these women are already having in their communities,” says Clooney, calling the fellows innovative and determined.
“Many of them work in places where the system is stacked against women and I am excited to see what they will go on to do.”
Amal Clooney on the CWI fellows
Her mentorship of promising social entrepreneurs mirrors the work she does at CFJ, enabling lawyers to practice in her global justice footsteps.
“We place early-career lawyers inside leading organisations across Africa for one year, train and mentor them, and take on cases alongside them, so they can go on to serve women in their own communities and lead others to do the same work.”
Her work also intersects with philanthropist Melinda French Gates, fellow lawyer Michelle Obama, other NGOs facilitating legal aid in Africa, and tech company Microsoft to build AI tools that can help solve problems around the world.
“We build coalitions with those most affected by the issues, and who live in the communities that want to see change,” says Clooney.
Global justice, it seems, also takes a global village. The law and human rights that Clooney fights to uphold day in and day out are the foundational layer that women – and men – can build entrepreneurial endeavours on top of.
“I am grateful that there is a community of allies waging justice along with us,” Clooney says in closing. “At the current rate, gender equality is still over 100 years away. We don’t have that kind of time.”
Forbes Australia was a guest of Cartier at the 2026 CWI celebration in Bangkok.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
