Why Cynthia Gabriel Won NED’s 2017 Democracy Award

From the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), located in Washington, DC:

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. She founded the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), a NED grantee, which works to promote good governance and conducts a multifaceted project designed to encourage public participation in efforts to combat corruption. Previously, she has served as the Vice President of the Paris-based global advocacy group, International Federation for Human Rights (2004-2009).

You can read more on NED-supported programs in Malaysia here. Also, here is more on Cynthia Gabriel’s award from Hornbill Unleashed:

Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) director Cynthia Gabriel has been chosen as one of this year recipients of the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) 2017 Democracy Award. In a ceremony at Capitol Hill on June 7, Cynthia will join four other activists from Afghanistan, Angola, Guatemala and Ukraine to receive the prestigious award.

The award highlights the courageous efforts of those who battle the scourge of official corruption in their respective countries. Cynthia said she was surprised to receive NED’s 2017 Democracy Award, as an anti-corruption campaigner in “difficult situations”.

“The Democracy Award is a tremendous boost and recognition for C4 and the Malaysian civil society’s contributions to fight corruption and build a democratic society,” she said, before leaving for the United States last night.
“This is made more special at this juncture when the spaces we are working in seem to be dramatically closing in on us, and the environments in which we work have become more hostile,” she told Malaysiakini.

Describing the award as a “global lift”, Cynthia said it recognises the sacrifices of whistleblowers and human rights defenders, whose roles are key to fighting impunity, abuse of power and the scourge of corruption.