Practically three-quarters of world’s inhabitants lived in a rustic the place rights and freedoms declined final 12 months, Freedom Home says.
Practically 75 p.c of the world’s inhabitants lived in a spot that noticed a decline in rights and freedoms in 2020, a United States-based assume tank mentioned in a brand new report, detailing the fifteenth consecutive 12 months of shrinking world liberties.
Whereas 28 nations noticed an enchancment final 12 months, declines in freedom had been recorded in 73 others, based on Freedom Home’s annual “Freedom within the World” report, launched on Wednesday.
The group, based mostly in Washington, DC, ranked 151 nations and 45 territories as both free, partly free or not free based mostly on standards that included electoral processes, political pluralism, authorities corruption, and freedom of expression and meeting, amongst others.
“In 2020 it was struggling democracies and authoritarian states that accounted for extra of the worldwide decline. The proportion of Not Free nations is now the very best it has been prior to now 15 years,” the organisation mentioned.
“These withering blows marked the fifteenth consecutive 12 months of decline in world freedom … The lengthy democratic recession is deepening.”
India went from free to partially free in 2020, as Freedom Home accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his social gathering of cracking down on critics, scapegoating Muslims and “tragically driving India itself towards authoritarianism”.
“With India’s decline to Partly Free, lower than 20 p.c of the world’s inhabitants now lives in a Free nation, the smallest proportion since 1995,” the report reads.
Freedom Home additionally mentioned governments have used the COVID-19 pandemic “to consolidate energy and suppress dissent”.
It pointed to Algeria, the place it mentioned the state used coronavirus-related lockdown measures to suppress a protest motion, and to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who “exploited the pandemic to amass emergency powers and deter unbiased reporting and criticism”.
The US has additionally seen an 11-point decline in freedom since 2020, the report discovered, making it one of many 25 nations to endure the steepest drops over the 10-year interval.
Freedom Home mentioned a lethal revolt on the US Capitol on January 6, spurred by former President Donald Trump and carried out by a mob of his supporters, “threw the nation into even higher disaster” after years of declining freedoms.
“The politically distorted well being suggestions, partisan infighting, shockingly excessive and racially disparate coronavirus loss of life charges, and police violence in opposition to protesters advocating for racial justice over the summer time all underscored america’ systemic dysfunctions and made American democracy seem basically unstable,” the report reads.
The group additionally criticised China for exerting “malign affect” in 2020, together with a crackdown on liberties in Hong Kong ensuing from a nationwide safety legislation.
Regardless of its usually grim findings, Freedom Home mentioned democracy is resilient and nations can rebound.
It pointed to Malawi, the place democratic progress was made, and to Taiwan, which “largely revered civil liberties” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, as nations that overcame challenges in 2020.