The word ‘Freedom’, has been used to wage wars and to stand in honor, yet one rarely thinks of the word ‘Freedom’ as something that the majority of the world is without, but as we dawn a new year that is the case for much of the world. According to a recent report by Freedom House, 2007 wasn't a year of increased emancipation and advancements in freedom across the globe, but one of considerable hindrances. The decline of freedom, was reported on January 16 in the Freedom in the World 2008, an annual survey of political rights and civil liberties worldwide.
The classification of Free, Partly Free, and Not Free, as set by Freedom in the World, are as follows:
A Free country is one where there is broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.
A Partly Free country is one in which there is limited respect for political rights and civil liberties. Partly Free states frequently suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic and religious strife, and often a setting in which a single political party enjoys dominance despite the façade of limited pluralism.
A Not Free country is one where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.
The report showed that there have been reversals in one-fifth of the world's countries, showing 38 countries with a decline in freedom, and only 10 countries with an improvement in freedom. The most distinctive regions being South Asia, with the former Soviet Union, Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa all reaching significant levels of decline. Much of the effects of these declines have been seen in news headlines as countries like Russia faced scrutiny over parliamentary elections, Georgia found itself in a state of emergency with violent police actions on demonstrators, the recent assassination in Pakistan of presidential hopeful, Benazir Bhutto, and the continuous rioting in Kenya over reports of vote rigging of the presidential election by the government.
“This year's results show a profoundly disturbing deterioration of freedom worldwide,” said Arch Puddington, director of research at Freedom House. “A number of countries that had previously shown progress toward democracy have regressed, while none of the most influential Not Free states showed signs of improvement. As the second consecutive year that the survey has registered a global decline in political rights and civil liberties, friends of freedom worldwide have real cause for concern.”
The concern over the level of freedom is grave, and as our world grows and modernizes, freedom seems to become more distant for many than that of the new hi-tech gadgets that line our shelves. As Americans we say we value freedom above all else, and we should, as in todays world freedom is a rare gem.
