At this year’s commencement ceremony, Columbia University will confer an honourary Doctor of Laws degree on Oswaldo Payá, a leader of the pro-reform movement in Cuba.  In so doing, Columbia honours not only him, but all Cubans who share his political goals of freedom and democracy.

A Columbia press release about the award summarizes those goals: "As a prominent human-rights organizer and director of the Varela Project, an effort to democratize Cuba's political system, Payá is celebrated as an agent of nonviolent change."

In 2002, Varela collected thousands of signatures on a petition that called for, among other things, a referendum on electoral reform, free speech and private enterprise. The group then presented it to Cuba's national assembly. Later that year, Mr. Payá traveled to Europe to accept the EU's highest human-rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

By 2003, however, a brutal and continuing crackdown on democracy activists was in full swing in Cuba. Undeterred, Mr. Payá and other Cubans continued their work, and this week in Havana, Varela took another step, unveiling a proposal for a new Cuban constitution with guaranteed democratic freedoms.

Commencement is scheduled for 17 May, but there is no indication that Fidel will allow Mr Payá to accept his accolade in person.