But for many in the Roman Catholic church, Castro was a leader who repressed freedom of religion.
Cairo has effectively banned anti-government protests, tortured detainees, repressed freedom of expression, and discriminated against Egypt's minority Christians, Human Rights Watch reported this year.
"The longer China represses freedoms," she said, "the longer that Nobel Prize winners' empty chairs in Oslo will remain a symbol of a great nation's unrealized potential and unfulfilled promise".
"When there's a spotlight on Gambia, there's much greater restraint shown in terms of violating rights or repressing freedoms," Cockburn said.
"The longer China represses freedoms, the longer it will miss out on these opportunities and the longer that Liu Xiaobo's empty chair in Oslo will remain a symbol of a great nation's unrealized potential and unfulfilled promise".
Iran, he said, continued to repress freedom and seek weapons of mass destruction, but he argued that Iranians themselves were the greatest hope for change.
"This bill is being brought in under the guise of an attempt to protect public safety but it will achieve exactly the opposite by repressing freedom of expression.
Like Norman, he feels that most countries need a "revolution from below" against any system that "represses freedom, sacrifices life, and retards the creation of true self-government".
Human rights groups have accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of repressing freedom of speech through a mixture of intimidation and arrests.
He said: "Unfortunately, what's happened with the Al-Jazeera journalists is part of an overall attempt to repress freedom of expression, so we have been raising our voice... "It's absolutely right for us to keep up the pressure..
There were some unlikely "Charlies" on today's march for democracy and freedom – and the presence of leaders of countries known for repressing freedom of speech caused consternation among left-wing commentators and human-rights groups in France.
