2017 DEMOCRACY AWARD HONOREE: Cynthia Gabriel, Malaysia
Cynthia Gabriel is a human rights advocate and anti-corruption leader in Malaysia. She has spent most of her professional life in the field of advancing and promoting human rights, good governance and democratic freedoms.
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2017 DEMOCRACY AWARD HONOREE: Khalil Parsa, Afghanistan
Khalil Parsa is a key human rights advocate and anti-corruption leader in Afghanistan. He is the founder and executive director of Supporting Organization for Afghanistan Civil Society (SOACS), a NED grantee that promotes good governance and accountability in the Herat province.
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2017 DEMOCRACY AWARD HONOREE: Claudia Escobar, Guatemala
Following her second election to the Court of Appeals in 2014, Claudia Escobar became the lead whistleblower in a case of grand corruption that revealed illegal interference in Guatemala’s judiciary by high-ranking political officials including the country’s vice president and the former president of Congress.
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2017 DEMOCRACY AWARD HONOREE: Rafael Marques de Morais, Angola
Rafael Marques de Morais is an Angolan journalist and human rights defender focused on investigating government corruption and abuses in the diamond industry. His organization, Maka Angola, is a long-time grantee of the NED.
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2017 DEMOCRACY AWARD HONOREE: Denys Bihus, Ukraine
Denys Bihus leads TOM 14, a group of professional investigative journalists in Ukraine. In 2013, Bihus launched a very popular anti-corruption television program, Nashi Hroshi (Our Money).
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Anti-Corruption Fight is Focus of 2017 Democracy Award
The National Endowment for Democracy honored activists from Afghanistan, Angola, Guatemala, Malaysia, and Ukraine with 2017 Democracy Award. Speaker Paul Ryan and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi made remarks at the presentation on June 7th.
