Category: Africa

China’s influence in Africa threatens media freedom

     

The murder in January of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale-Divela in Ghana, one of Africa’s most stable and democratic countries, shocked the country and journalists around the world, the National… Read more »

Inequality, insecurity, China threaten Africa’s democratization

     

Nearly one in three people living in West and Central Africa fear losing their homes and land in the next five years, according to a survey of 33 countries, making… Read more »

Will China’s plan for global supremacy spark a new Cold War? Not quite

     

Institutions of higher learning around the world should resist the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine academic freedom abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 21, 2019, Human Rights Watch published a… Read more »

The New Normal? From non-state actors to ‘terrorist governors’

     

The Venezuelan regime’s mobilization of violent colectivo gangs against opposition protesters is only the latest instance of authoritarian regimes orchestrating illiberal non-state actors to counter democratic forces. Some non-state actors… Read more »

Third wave of global ‘autocratization’ may still be picking up

     

Conventional wisdom on democracy’s troubles is still taking shape, but it generally holds that a dozen or so countries have backslid in a global trend dating roughly to the global… Read more »

Nigeria’s flawed poll, corruption, state capture… Africa’s uneven democratic performance

     

Africa’s citizens demand democracy but do not think they are getting it, observers suggest. Afrobarometer [a partner of the National Endowment for Democracy] describes this sub-category as “dissatisfied democrats.” According… Read more »

Why violent extremism still spreads: predatory states

     

Violent extremist groups continue to grow from the sense of injustice, futility, and betrayal that stems from predatory state behavior. A comprehensive countering strategy needs to focus squarely on creating… Read more »

Human rights advocate killed in Ethiopian Airlines crash

     

  Democracy and human rights advocates are mourning the loss of Josefin Ekermann from the East Africa Regional Office of Civil Rights Defenders, the Stockholm-based  international human rights group. Three Austrian physicians. The… Read more »

International Women’s Day: defending women’s rights against authoritarianism

     

Women’s Learning Partnership Promo 2019 (English) from Women’s Learning Partnership on Vimeo. A recent public hearing of the US House Intelligence Committee dealt with the threat of rising authoritarianism and… Read more »

Ethiopia: reform needs assistance to overcome ‘stiff resistance’

     

After more than two years of protests, power changed hands in Ethiopia last April. Under the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia is shedding its reputation as a country that… Read more »