Sunday 3rd September 2023

Nadine Finch:

Lawyers who defend the human rights of others are increasingly vulnerable when politicians no longer respect or protect these rights
Lawyers who are themselves from communities whose rights are being denied are particularly at risk, as has been the case in England, Northern Ireland and internationally

Frank Murray:

A recent coup removed Niger’s pro-Western leader president Mohamed Bazoum. France and the US, who have considerable military forces in the country, are at the head of NATO members who want him restored. They will rely on the military and economic strength of Nigeria, led by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria, whose emergence as the president of Nigeria was itself illegitimate. The intervention being threatened by Ecowas is not in defence of democracy. It is more aligned with defending the interests of France and other Western imperialist powers.

The imperialist role of France in its ex-colonies in Africa cannot be overemphasised. It has held these neocolonial states in an exploitative grip, extracting their natural resources and constraining their fiscal policy space in the most rabid manner.