March 5th marks the beginning of the 12th National People’s Congress, where Communist Party leader Xi Jinping is expected to assume full power as President and head of the Central Military Commission. Ahead of the congress, influential activists and scholars …

Prominent dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez has been released by Cuban security forces after being arrested (below) alongside other 20-odd other government critics enquiring about political detainees.

By late Thursday night she was back on Twitter. She wrote that she was …

A new resource guide from the NED’s Democracy Resource Center provides a valuable set of links to resources and references on Democratic Transitions.

The guide addresses issues of democratization, democracy, interim governments, new democracies and democratic …

Monday, September 24, 2012

Freedom on the Net 2012: Shifting Methods of Internet Control

11 a.m. – Freedom House event to discuss a new report that rates internet access, censorship, and user rights in 47 countries around the world …

In the wake of USAID’s expulsion from Russia, the country’s pro-democracy and civil society groups may be able to call on other funding sources, reports suggest, including the State Department’s Department of Human Rights and Labor and on non-governmental …

During the summer of 2012, the Russian parliament passed and President Putin signed a series of laws that will raise fines on protesters, impose limits on the Internet, make slander a criminal offense, and require nongovernmental organizations that …

The senior U.S. diplomat for Central Asia was reportedly “quizzed about political prisoners in Uzbekistan” during a recent visit to Tashkent.

Obama administration officials are negotiating an agreement with Islam Karimov (left), Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president, to permit thousands of military …

Burma has abolished direct media censorship in the latest sign of continuing reforms which analysts predict could help triple the size of the country’s economy by 2030.

But the democratic opposition and external actors are pushing for the …

This week’s attacks on diversity campaigners in Armenia, civil society calls for political integrity in Georgia and Eurovision song contest-linked campaigns to highlight rights abuses in Azerbaijan are highlighting the challenges to advancing human rights democracy in the Caucasus.

On …

“In 2000, the world hailed the end of more than 70 …