Transparency International calls on the Angolan authorities to stop the harassment of civil society activists

Transparency International joined with Transparência e Integridade, Associação Cívica, its partner in Portugal and Rafael Marques de Morais, the winner of the 2013 Transparency International Integrity Award to call on the government of Angola to stop the harassment of civil society activists.

In his acceptance speech for the Integrity Award at a ceremony in Berlin on 8 November, Marques, a journalist from Angola, made a passionate plea for civil society to be given space to operate without harassment.

He dedicated the award to Manuel Chivonde Nito Alves, a 17 year-old activist who had been released from jail that day following his arrest for attempting to print T-shirts criticising the president of Angola, Africa’s second longest serving leader. The charges against Nito Alves, however, have not been dropped.

Transparency International and its network of more than 100 organisations work around the world to fight corruption and to create a safe space for civil society to speak up against corruption without persecution or fear of reprisal.

Angola ranks 101 out of 109 at the bottom of the 2013 CIVICUS Enabling Environment index, a study of how open and safe a country is for civil society activism.

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