How to make mining corporations in Africa respect human rights

The reality of international and Australian mining corporations in Africa can be grim for local civilians. My latest Guardian investigation examines these issues. I interview a journalist from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Will Fitzgibbon, about his organisation’s recent work on the subject and the following is the full interview extracted in the Guardian:…

Why it's time for UN sanctions against Australia

My weekly Guardian column is published today: This month, the United Nations accused Canberra of… potentially breaking international law… by forcibly repelling refugee boats back to Indonesia.… Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees,… said… that the international body was “concerned by any policy or practice that involved pushing asylum-seeker boats back at sea without a proper…

Disaster capitalism strikes at the heart of African mining

A key focus of my forthcoming book and film about disaster capitalism is the way Western resource companies exploit poor nations and often commit human rights abuses in the process (I’m looking at Papua New Guinea and Haiti). Here’s an interesting Human Rights Watch report about Eritrea: International mining firms rushing to invest in Eritrea’s…

Protesting the proposed dirty tar sands from Canada to Obama’s US

Now that’s imaginative civil disobedience: Occupy Wall Street take note: when garnering headlines that don’t have anything to do with NYPD brutality, nudity—or more specifically, orgies—may be the way to go. At a meeting between British and Canadian officials yesterday in London, to discuss the UK’s purchase of Canada’s sweet sweet tar sands oil, two…

Legacy of Tamil Tigers still resonate

Renouncing terrorism as part of a national liberation struggle is a complex business, either done for pragmatic reasons or genuine remorse. Whatever the reason, Tamils in Sri Lanka remain deeply oppressed: Five years after they were caught buying arms for Sri Lankan rebels, three Canadians have signed an open letter from prison acknowledging they were…