Amal Alamuddin Refuses UN Offer To Serve on Gaza Probe panel

Amal Alamuddin, human-rights lawyer and George Clooney's fiancé, has refused to serve on a United Nations panel to investigate war crimes in Gaza.

The UN's Human Rights Council announced Monday that she would be  part of a three-member commission of inquiry looking into possible war crimes being committed in the Israeli offensive against the Hamas.

But she has declined the offer , reports  the  media. In a statement issued by George Clooney's agent Stan Rosenfield, she said, "I was contacted by the UN about this for the first time this morning," she said. "I am honoured to have received the offer, but given existing commitments -- including eight ongoing cases -- unfortunately could not accept this role," reports the Guardian.

According to the Associated Press, Gabon ambassador Baudelaire Ndong Ella, president of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, made the announcement of her appointment. She was supposed to serve alongside Doudou Diene of Senegal, a lawyer who has filled UN posts on racism and human rights in Ivory Coast, and Canada's William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London, said the report.

It is not clear till date who will replace her and why her consent was not sought before making the announcement.

Amal Alamuddin, 36,  is a Lebanese by birth and  has represented Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine. She is a graduate of Oxford and the New York University School of Law and works for a London-based law firm.

Alamuddin got engaged to Clooney in April and the two are planning to get married in September in his villa in Italy. Clooney himself has been involved in humanitarian work in Dafur.