Why Colombia voted ‘No’ on peace referendum
A Colombian peace deal that the president and the country’s largest rebel group had signed just days before was defeated in a referendum on Sunday, leaving the fate of a… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
Azerbaijan: authoritarian constitutions send a signal
Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president of 13 years, is often described as a “strongman” who enjoys near absolute power over the oil-rich nation on the Caspian Sea, The Financial Times reports:… Read more »
Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows – Deadline Extended!
Dedicated to international exchange, the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program offers five-month fellowships to leading democracy activists, journalists, and scholars from around the world. During their time in residence at the National… Read more »
Russia’s ‘uncivil society’
On Wednesday evening, Anton Belikov, an artist and lecturer at Moscow’s Surikov Academy of Arts, walked through an exhibition of photographs documenting the war in eastern Ukraine, and threw paint… Read more »
Cambodia’s velvet glove frays
Hun Sen (left), Cambodia’s longtime strongman, faces local elections next year and a national contest in 2018. On his recent provincial swing he pressed flesh, announced local infrastructure projects as… Read more »
A new Cuba – or Market-Leninism?
The independent Center for Legal Information Cubalex warned Thursday that the attack launched by the regime against it last Friday is not over and that its members could be subject… Read more »
Palestinian vote remote
Municipal elections rarely excite international attention, say analysts Nathan Brown and Caroline Zullo. However, when elections in the West Bank and Gaza were scheduled for October 8, they represented something… Read more »
China’s repression ‘buries rule of law’, erodes implicit pact
After being expelled from court while trying to defend a client who said he had been tortured, Chinese lawyer Li Jinxing wrote: “Is this what being a lawyer is like…?… Read more »
Civic Freedom Monitor addresses civil society’s challenges
The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) today launched the “Civic Freedom Monitor,” a rebranded version of its long-running NGO Law Monitor – widely recognized as the most comprehensive source… Read more »
Thai junta allows ‘culture of torture’ to flourish
Officials in Thailand on Wednesday prevented Amnesty International from publicly presenting a report that accuses the ruling military junta of torture and abuse, the group said. Minutes before the briefing… Read more »