Category: Civil Society

China’s treatment of Liu Xiaobo condemned as ‘a moral and political outrage’

     

The Chinese authorities have refused permission for Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace laureate paroled from prison for cancer treatment, to go abroad for care, one of his lawyers said on Thursday,… Read more »

Sliding into civil war? Venezuela’s ‘drama threatens to turn from farce to tragedy’

     

  Venezuela’s government hunted on Wednesday for rogue policemen who attacked key installations by helicopter, but critics of President Nicolas Maduro suspected the raid may have been staged to justify… Read more »

The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

     

Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest is a timely examination of the recent digital era of public protest. Moving through her analyses of the… Read more »

Angola’s kleptocracy resisting greater scrutiny

     

Angola’s reconstruction and oil boom presented the politically connected — those with “relatives in the kitchen,” as Angolans say — with a golden opportunity for self-enrichment. In an economy driven… Read more »

How Africa’s unions enhance democratization

     

Trade unions in Africa contribute to democratization by acting as instruments of political socialization for their members, according to new research. Survey data from 22,000 respondents in 18 African countries… Read more »

Elves vs. Trolls: Europe energized against disinformation threat

     

Russia has not hidden its liking for information warfare. The chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, wrote in 2013 that “informational conflict” is a key part of war, The… Read more »

Syrian dissident’s treatment creates disincentive to dialogue

     

A prominent Syrian dissident has been told he cannot get political asylum in the United States because he organized a conference with Syrian opposition groups — even though the American… Read more »

Liu Xiaobo’s condition ‘a blow to China’s democracy movement’

     

China’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was granted his request to seek treatment for advanced liver cancer outside prison. Liu, who was sentenced to prison in 2009 for advocating… Read more »

Angolan activist’s prosecution is ‘retaliation’ for democracy award

     

Washington-based policy-makers on Capitol Hill and non-governmental groups alike are closely monitoring the prosecution of Angolan anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques, VOA reports. “Rafael was prosecuted in the past and imprisoned… Read more »

Kleptocrats without borders: Putin on defensive against corruption

     

A new poll released this week reveals a lot about how Russians view President Vladimir Putin. A whopping 87 percent of those surveyed say they trust him to represent their nation on… Read more »