Amal Clooney - a human rights lawyer representing a Yazidi Goodwill Ambassador who escaped ISIS - made a speech to the UN on Friday, March 10.

You won't have missed the occasion, because her yellow Bottega Venetta dress and 'blossoming baby bump' made headlines across the world.

Amal Clooney yellow bottega veneta dress and coat UN Speechpinterest
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A big song and dance has been made of the fact that publications ranging from tabloids, to gossip rags and even the odd political magazine, shelved the punchier parts of her political address in favour of critiquing her outfit and getting in their 'George Clooney,' 'maternity style,' and 'twins' search engine keywords.

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And quite rightly so, to be fair.

As a digital magazine editor myself, I understand the compulsion to entice people with 'clicky' headlines and to serve the baser desires of the casual internet browser (who sadly often prefers celebrity stories to hard politics), but there are times when you have a responsibility to take a step back and decide that, today, it is more important to set the agenda rather than respond to it.

And so, in that vein, here are the most important things that you should be taking away from Amal Clooney's powerful and important speech to the UN about ISIS:

1) Amal, as a representative for some of the victims of Islamic State brutality, admonished the UN for their failure to launch a comprehensive investigation into certain of the atrocities - including mass murders and sex trafficking - committed to date by ISIS.

'This is the first time I have spoken in this chamber. I wish I could say I'm proud to be here but I am not. I am ashamed as a supporter of the United Nations that states are failing to prevent or even punish genocide because they find that their own interests get in the way,' she said.

Amal Clooney addresses the UNpinterest
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2) In the cities and villages that have been overrun by Islamic State militia, ISIS routinely rounds up women, some of them young girls, to be used as 'sabia', which means slaves.

3) Amal Clooney is currently representing certain members of the Yazidi community - an Iraqi religious minority that has been targeted by ISIS jihadists. The Yazidis were denounced by Al-Qaida, a precursor to ISIS, as infidels, and their slaughter was sanctioned by the group's leaders.

4) Amal's speech acted as introduction for one of her clients, Nadia Murad. Nadia was captured and enslaved by ISIS, in 2014, and made to endure brutal gang rape after brutal gang rape.

As Amal states: 'Nadia was one of 6,700 Yazidis taken by ISIS two summers ago, to be sold in markets and on Facebook, sometimes for as little as $20.'

Amal cites a 'bureacracy of evil, on an industrial scale' that both legitimated and provided guidance for a mass-scale subjugation of the Yazidi population.

Horrifyingly, 'ISIS even released a pamphlet, entitled Questions and Answers On Taking Captives And Slaves,' she said.

5) Nadia's mother and some of her other family were executed by ISIS. Along with thousands and thousands of others.

'Make no mistake,' Amal said, 'What Nadia has told us about, is genocide.'

'Genocide doesn't happen by accident. You have to plan it,' she went on.

And it is this which formed the crux of Amal's castigation of the UN assembly - she accused them of overlooking some of the more horrific, enduring, wide-scale brutalities that are being committed routinely, in favour of concentrating on bigger, blockbuster wins and political posturing.

'I am ashamed as a lawyer, that there is no justice being done and barely a complaint being made about it,' she said. 'I am ashamed as a human being that we ignore their cries for help.'

You can watch Amal Clooney's powerful speech in full below:

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Natasha Bird
Former Digital Executive Editor

Natasha Bird is the Former Executive Editor (Digital) of ELLE.