Mr. Rafael Marques de Morais is a journalist and human rights defender with a special interest in political economy and human rights in Angola. In 2009, he founded the watchdog website “Maka Angola,” dedicated to exposing corruption and human rights abuses in his country.

Mr Marques de Morais has authored various human rights reports, including a book: Diamantes de Sangue: Corrupção e Tortura em Angola [Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola] (2011). In the book, he exposed corruption and human rights abuses in the diamond industry.

Born in Luanda, Mr Marques de Morais holds a BA (Hons) in Anthropology and Media from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford. He was a visiting scholar at the African Studies Department of SAIS/ Johns Hopkins University, (2012), and a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (2011), both in Washington, D.C.

For his work as an investigative journalist and human rights defender, he received, in 2015, the Journalism Award from Index on Censorship, while the University of British Columbia awarded him the Allard Prize for Integrity. In 2014, the UCLA Anderson School of Management honored him and his co-author with the Gerald Loeb Award for International Reporting for a groundbreaking investigation on how the Angolan President made his daughter a billionaire through official decrees and state looting, published by Forbes Magazine. In 2013 he was the co-recipient of the Transparency International Integrity Award, for his work exposing the scourge of corruption in Angola.