Freedom House Report
Freedom House has prepared this overview report as a companion to our annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World. We are publishing this report to assist policymakers, human rights organizations, democracy advocates, and others who are working to advance freedom around the world. We also hope that the report will be useful to the work of the new United Nations Human Rights Council.
The reports are excerpted from Freedom in the World 2006, which surveys the state of freedom in 192 countries and 14 select territories. The ratings and accompanying essays are based on events from December 1, 2004 through November 30, 2005. The 17 countries and 3 territories profiled in this report are drawn from the total of 45 countries and 8 territories that are considered to be Not Free and whose citizens endure systematic and pervasive human rights violations.
Included in this report are eight countries judged to have the worst records: Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose inhabitants suffer intense repression. These states and regions received the Freedom House survey’s lowest rating: 7 for political rights and 7 for civil liberties. Within these entities, state control over daily life is pervasive and wide-ranging, independent organizations and political opposition are banned or suppressed, and fear of retribution for independent thought and action is part of daily life. In the case of Chechnya, the rating in large measure reflects the fallout of a vicious conflict that in the last 12 years has disrupted normal life and resulted in some 200,000 deaths.
The report also includes nine further countries near the bottom of Freedom House's list of the most repressive: Belarus, China, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. The territory of Western Sahara is also included in this group. While these states scored slightly better than the “worst of the worst,” they offer very limited scope for private discussion while severely suppressing opposition political activity, impeding independent organizing, and censoring or punishing criticism of the state.
Massive human rights violations take place in nearly every part of the world. This year's roster of the “most repressive” includes countries from the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and East Asia; they represent a wide array of cultures and levels of economic development. This report from Freedom House to the United Nations focuses on states and regions that have seen some of the world’s most severe repression and most systematic and brutal violations of human dignity. Our report seeks to focus the attention of the United Nations Human Rights Council on states and territories that deserve investigation and condemnation for their widespread violations.
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