Freedom House, has released its 2009 annual report. In it they name the world’s worst of the worst human rights abusers.
Freedom House a New York based, non-profit NGO, has been monitoring threats to human rights since 1980. Its recent released annual report reveals that at the beginning of 2009, 47% of the world’s population still live under oppressive regimes.
· 89 (46%)of the world’s 193 countries are ranked as Free, where the people have the freedom of a broad array of political and human rights.
· 62 (32%) live in only Partly Free countries, where there is a weak enforcement of the rule of law
· 42 (22%) of the world’s countries are rated as Not Free. Nations where the most basic of human rights and political freedom is totally unknown to the general population.
Of the 42 countries assigned as ‘Not Free’, eight were given the Worst of the Worst possible rating. These countries include: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The list also included the two territories, Chechnya and Tibet.
At a slightly lesser rating of human rights abuse, followed the countries: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Loas, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Zimbabwe, plus the two territories of South Ossetia (Georgia) and Western Sahara (Morocco). In these countries there is very little scope for private discussion, while political opposition is severely oppressed. All criticism of the state is censored and punished. The people’s lives are totally state controlled, which is all pervasive. Fear of retribution for independent thought, or action is a daily hazard.
The countries with human rights abuse range from the Americas, to the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and East Asia. They represent a wide range of cultures and levels of economic development. Countries like Zimbabwe have fallen from being one of Africa’s richest nations, to become one of its poorest, wracked by disease, starvation and the world’s worst ever inflation.
Over the last three decades there has been a significant expansion of human rights. Many tyrannical leaders have been taken to task in international tribunals and many are still being tried. Dozens of states have shed tyranny and embraced democratic rule and respect for basic civil liberties. There is world wide support for the:
· values of democracy
· rule of law
· freedom of association
· freedom of speech,
· rights of minority groups
· plus other fundamental universally valid human rights.
Many of the nations which have measured and sustainable progress in long-term economic development, also show respect for democratic practices.
However, Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House says “Although democracy has scored impressive gains in recent times, we have also begun to experience a new drive to prevent the further spread of democracy and where possible, roll back some of the achievements that have already been registered.” This involves dismantling independent media, marginalizing political opposition, preventing independent think tanks and preventing NGOs from obtaining necessary resources.
Many of the worst human rights offenders have joined in loose coalitions attached to the United Nations, in an attempt to deflect attention from their history of repression. Freedom House hosted a ‘Civil Society Engaging and Participating in Democratic Governance’, conference in Harare, Zimbabwe on March 26 - 28. Many of the top officials in Mugabe’s new unity government attended.
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April 13th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
The Worst Of The Worst Human Rights Abusers…
Freedom House has released its 2009 report of the world’s worst human rights abusers….