Veronique Mistiaen

Award-winning journalist

United Kingdom

I write about human rights, social and humanitarian issues, global development and the environment.

Reporting from across the developing world, as well as Europe, I tell stories of survival, resistance, environmental activism and economic empowerment. I like to explore solutions rather than merely exposing problems. I am bilingual English/French.

My work has been published in The Guardian, Economist, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, Times, Telegraph, BBC News, National Geographic, NPR, Financial Times’ This is Africa, Thomson Reuters Foundation, New Internationalist, Positive News, Le Monde, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and many other media.

Need a freelance? Contact me at [email protected]

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Portfolio
the Guardian
09/17/2017
'I can't wait to work, but I'm not allowed to': young refugees on living in limbo

What is it like to grow up in an Afghan village with no water or electricity, then to find yourself alone in London at 18, not speaking a word of English? How does it feel to have to wait for life to begin because you can't get a driving licence, go to university or find a job until you get your papers?

The Telegraph
12/03/2015
Meet the Queen Mothers: 10,000 amazing women taking back power in Africa

The women came from the far corners of the country by the dozen, from traffic-choked Accra, bustling market towns and remote rural villages - with huge golden rings on their fingers and rows of beads around their necks. 'We wear a lot of gold and pearls to signify that we are precious,' says one with a grin.

Newsweek
03/27/2015
Michaelangelo's Marble Is Being Sold Cheap by Industrialists

One morning, citizens of this small Tuscan city, tucked away on the western slopes of the Apuan Alps in northern Italy, awoke to a strange protest. Grievance signs in blood-red letters had appeared overnight on the city's statutes.

Telegraph Magazine
16/06/2007
Mother Courage

Haiti has the highest HIV/Aids levels outside Africa, but efforts at prevention and treatment are hamstrung by fear, superstition and the armed gangs that rule the slums. We followed a group of women who dare to care.

New Internationalist
07/05/2019
Protecting the 'lungs of West Africa'

I've asked environmental lawyer Alfred Brownell why he has risked everything to protect Liberia's rainforest and the indigenous communities who live there, from palm oil destruction. He now lives in exile in the US.