News and Notes
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Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
On December 5, as this issue was in its final stages of being readied for press, word came that Nelson Mandela, hero of South Africa's democratic transition and its first postapartheid president, had passed away at the age of 95. Mandela was one of the greatest democratic leaders of the past century, and we look forward to taking note of his achievements in our April 2014 issue.
NED's 30th Anniversary
To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, the National Endowment for Democracy held an event on November 13 at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and NED president Carl Gershman delivered remarks.
The event included a panel featuring Senators John McCain (RAZ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Ed Royce (R-CA). ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos served as moderator.
Tenth Annual Lipset Lecture
On November 7, Donald L. Horowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus at Duke University, gave the tenth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Its title was "Ethnic Power-Sharing and Democracy: Three Big Problems."
He also delivered the lecture at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto on October 30. An article based on the lecture will appear in the Journal's April issue. Horowitz is working on a book on constitutional design for ethnically divided societies. [End Page 184]
Human-Rights Awards
On November 8, Transparency International celebrated its twentieth anniversary by awarding its 2013 Integrity Award to a pair of journalists: Rafael Marques de Morais (Angola) and Luo Changping (China).
Marques produces the anticorruption blog http://makaangola.org. In February 2013, he was acquitted of libel charges in a Lisbon lawsuit raised by nine generals named in his 2011 book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, which was published in Portugal. On September 20, Marques and two other journalists were arrested while conducting interviews outside a Luanda courthouse, and Marques reportedly received a beating while in custody. In 1999, he was imprisoned for an article he wrote entitled "The Lipstick of the Dictatorship."
In December 2012, Luo uncovered a massive bribery scandal involving Liu Tienan, then-deputy head of China's National Development and Reform Commission. When the financial magazine Caijing, where Luo serves as deputy managing editor, refused to print his story, Luo published it on his blog. A subsequent government investigation resulted in Liu's removal from office and expulsion from the Communist Party.
On November 20, Malala Yousafzai was awarded the 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The award ceremony at the European Parliament came just over a year after Yousafzai, now 16, was shot in the head and neck by gunmen affiliated with the Taliban. Yousafzai had angered extremist groups by arguing publicly for the right of Pakistani girls to attend school. Her memoir, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, was published in October.
On October 22, Burmese human-rights advocate Aung San Suu Kyi appeared before the European Parliament to accept the Sakharov Prize that was awarded to her in absentia in 1990.
Bahrain Conference
On November 2, the Norway-based Rafto Foundation for Human Rights held a conference in Bergen entitled "Bahrain's Arab Spring: The Inconvenient Revolution."
During the conference, the Rafto Foundation presented its annual prize to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Acting president Maryam al-Khawaja accepted the award on behalf of the Center and delivered a keynote speech. The conference also featured remarks by Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch, Justin Gengler of Qatar University, Renée Rasmussen of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, and Walid al-Saqaf of Örebro University.
Colloquium on Transitions
This past fall, the Center for Constitutional Transitions at New [End Page 185] York University School of Law held its second Constitutional Transitions Colloquium, entitled "Emerging from / Sliding back into Authoritarianism." The colloquium comprised seven events held between September 4 and December 4, focusing on democratic...
