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"Freedom House": Deterioration of political rights and freedoms worldwide

2025-02-26 17:08:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"Freedom House": Deterioration of political rights and freedoms

Freedom House said Wednesday that political and civil liberties have deteriorated in the past year in 60 countries around the world, while the situation has improved in only 34. According to the organization, more than 40 percent of the world's population will be affected by this deterioration in 2024, which marks the 19th year of this trend at the global level.

In the report "The Uphill Battle to Protect Rights," the organization attributes this deterioration to "political violence, electoral manipulation, ongoing armed conflicts, and deepening repression during 2024."

According to the assessments of 'Freedom House', which analyzes the state of rights and freedoms in 195 countries and 13 territories, the situation in Albania and Kosovo remains unchanged and both countries continue to be classified as "partly free", a classification that this organization uses for countries where electoral processes take place, but where full political rights and civil liberties remain limited.

Albania was rated 68 points out of 100, while Kosovo was rated 60. Both countries had the same rating for 2023.

The full chapters for these two countries have not yet been published.

An unchanged situation, according to the Freedom House assessment, also exists in the neighboring countries of Montenegro and North Macedonia, while Serbia has deteriorated by one point compared to last year, from 57 to 56, and the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has improved by one point from 51 to 52.

Freedom House singles out Serbia, under the leadership of President Aleksandar Vu?i? and his party, as an example of how elected leaders are undermining media freedom. Serbia in 2019 moved from the category of free countries to “partly free” and ranks among the countries that have suffered the greatest decline in the last 19 years with the gradual destruction of democratic institutions, according to Freedom House.

"Attacks on journalists and strict control over the media were some of the highlights of this erosion," the report said.

Globally, the report estimates that only 20 percent of the world's population lives in free countries. According to Freedom House, in 66 countries where elections were held in 2024, about 40 percent of them were accompanied by violence. The report notes that candidates were attacked in at least 20 countries, while attacks on polling stations were recorded in at least 14 countries.

“General freedoms suffered another blow this year with elections in every region of the world,” said Freedom House Acting President Gerardo Berthin. “But despite these challenges, people continued to demand their voices be heard. It is becoming increasingly clear that the only way to end the nearly two-decade decline in global freedom is for people everywhere to fight for their rights and security, and for governments and democratic institutions to work together to support them.”

According to the report's main findings, in addition to political violence during elections and their manipulation, interstate armed conflicts and civil wars from Ukraine to Sudan, as well as violence by armed militant groups and criminal organizations from Latin America to Africa, "have undermined security and prevented the realization of fundamental rights."

"Residents in 20 percent of the world's countries currently live without the most basic protections from the unauthorized use of force," the report says.

According to Freedom House, one of the greatest threats to democracies around the world this year was elected leaders who attacked democratic institutions, including undermining the bodies that oversee their powers, attacks on the media, anti-corruption agencies and the courts. “These attacks endanger democracy and fundamental freedoms,” the report added.

However, the report also notes some improvements, including the fall of the brutal regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria after the country's 13-year civil war.

The report also offers several recommendations to democratic governments and non-governmental organizations to improve the situation of political and civil rights and freedoms, giving priority to strengthening the rule of law and the provision of services and economic well-being.

"This year, all those who understand the value of political rights and civil liberties must work together to defend democracy and be ready to seize opportunities to make progress wherever they arise," the report says./ VOA