Whether the newly adopted Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which was overwhelmingly approved in the UN General Assembly on 2 April, will be able to successfully eliminate or prevent the harms associated with the international arms trade, however, is uncertain.

From prisoners’ rights in Australia and America to African refugees in Tel Aviv, here’s my pick of some of the most interesting reads from around the web.

An interview with Yhonnie Scarce Fifteen black figures, crafted from blown glass, hang from white rope that has been tied around their necks. Carefully arranged in the shape of a crucifix, these hanging bodies represent the destructive impact that colonialism, and the introduction of Christianity to Australia, has had on Aboriginal life and cultural traditions. […]

An interview with Robert Bollard In the latest Overland, historian Robert Bollard writes a personal account of his exploration of his Tasmanian Aboriginal ancestry. We spoke to Robert about his article ‘Who Was Bet B?’ and his writing process. What was your motivation for writing your article? What issues were you interested in exploring? In […]

From a first-hand account of what it is like to be imprisoned inside Guantánamo Bay to our enduring affection for bookshops, here is my pick of some of the most interesting links from around the web. Jay Rosen has teamed up with the Guardian to provide alternative coverage of the 2012 US Presidential campaign. The […]

An interview with Xavier Rizos Xavier Rizos researches relationships between economics, governance, regulation, politics and culture. We spoke to him about his article ‘Will the market save us?’ which is featured in the new Overland, and why it will take more than a ‘carbon tax’ for Australia to have an effective climate policy. What motivated […]

An interview with Jalal Abukhater When Mahmoud Abbas formally asked the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state, there was one perspective that was notably lacking in the surrounding media coverage: what did the youth of Palestine think? On the 21 September, thousands of Palestinians congregated in Ramallah, as well as in Nablus, Bethlehem and […]

Over the weekend, the #occupyeverywhere movement arrived in Australia. Protests took place in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, Adelaide and elsewhere around the country. Globally, this movement has grown fast. On 15 October demonstrations were planned in 951 cities in 82 countries. Though demands have varied – some are protesting against austerity measures in Europe, others […]

Charlotte Wood is an Australian fiction writer and author of four novels. Her last novel, The Children, was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Association’s literary fiction book of the year. She also edited Brothers & Sisters, a collection of short stories and non-fiction about siblings by twelve Australian writers, including Nam Le, Christos Tsiolkas […]

Troy Anthony Davis, who was convicted in 1989 of killing off-duty white police officer Mark MacPhail, was executed by the state of Georgia yesterday. Killed by lethal injection, Davis was pronounced dead on Wednesday at 11:08pm ET. And yet there were significant doubts about his guilt. Davis’ execution was delayed for approximately four hours while […]

Ellena Savage is the latest essayist in Overland’s CAL-Connections Project, an endeavour that draws attention to the systemic exclusion of certain groups within Australian literary culture by partnering emerging writers from under-represented backgrounds with established editors. In Overland 204, the focus was on women writers. We spoke with Savage, who is the immediate past editor […]

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the time is ripe for reflection. As is commonly said, the events of September 11, 2001 ‘changed everything’, and a decade on we are still trying to make sense of what happened that day, and where we’ve come since then. This week TomDispatch.com will be attempting to make […]

Review: Cambodia’s curse: the modern history of a troubled land Joel Brinkley Black Inc. ‘Be careful because Cambodia is the most dangerous place you will ever visit. You will fall in love with it, and eventually it will break your heart.’ So said Joseph Mussomeli, who was the US ambassador to Cambodia in 2005. Mussomeli, […]