Category: Africa

Do women human rights defenders hold the key to a democratic Sudan?

     

Since the successful removal of former president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s struggle for civilian rule has the world holding its breath, writes Julie Snyder, an adjunct fellow with the Human Rights… Read more »

Dictators are ascendant. But democracy is still in demand.

     

Recent protests – from Hong Kong and Sudan to Central and Eastern Europe – demonstrate that large numbers of people around the world still want democracy enough to take to… Read more »

Africa’s ‘backsliding’ qualified by democratic resilience

     

Three decades after sub-Saharan Africa joined the “third wave,” democracy’s ability to endure has been established in many countries, but its quality remains a grave concern, notes Peter M. Lewis,… Read more »

Can civil society help ‘re-wire politics to Africa’s advantage’?

     

The European Union this week announced a Call for Proposals to Support Civil Society Initiatives to Promote Democracy and Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea. How timely. The authorities in Equatorial Guinea should immediately… Read more »

Algeria’s divided democracy movement seeks end to impasse

     

In April 2019, Algerians ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, becoming the fifth Arab country to topple a president since 2011, the Brookings Institution reports. Though successfully deposing the head of state,… Read more »

Corruption impacts society’s poorest and most vulnerable the hardest

     

  More than one in four people who accessed public services during the previous year had to pay a bribe, according to the new Global Corruption Barometer – Africa 2019, released… Read more »

Ethnic infighting threatens Ethiopia’s liberal reforms

     

Brigadier General Asamnew Tsige, accused of planning Saturday’s attacks in northern Amhara State that killed five political figures, was shot dead (Reuters/CFR) yesterday, a spokesperson for Ethiopia’s prime minister said. He… Read more »

‘Warlord democrats’ threaten Africa’s democratic moment?

     

In the 60-plus years since the countries of sub-Saharan Africa started becoming independent, democracy there has advanced unevenly. Even as some countries in the region have grown into success stories,… Read more »