The international community regularly focuses on human rights abuses in rogue states like Russia and North Korea or war zones like Syria and Iraq, but many authoritarian regimes have managed to avoid serious criticism by exploiting strategic partnerships with the United States and its allies. The following is a small sample of the world's low-profile autocracies.
It has been a grim year on the whole, but 2014 was not without its bright spots. The following were some of the best and worst human rights developments of the past 12 months.
As World Cup soccer kicks off the first knockout stage on June 28, Freedom House takes a look at how teams stack up based on their countries' freedom scores, as measured in Freedom House's Freedom in the World index. Costa Rica would advance--to possibly win it all?--while Switzerland and Chile would send Argentina and Brazil packing in the first round of elimination play. How would your team fare?
Every country suffers from corruption, but some are worse than others. Nations in Transit 2014, a report released today by Freedom House, rates democratic development in 29 formerly communist countries. The list below illustrates the full range of malfeasance that can occur along the report’s 1–7 scale, with 7 indicating the worst performance.
In a special report, “Democracy in Crisis: Corruption, Media, and Power in Turkey,” Freedom House documents the links between government pressure on journalists, publishers and media groups, and Turkey’s democratic crisis.
In reviewing the past year’s events for Freedom in the World 2014 (www.freedomhouse.org), the latest edition of its annual report on political rights and civil liberties around the globe, Freedom House noticed a number of common characteristics among the world’s authoritarian rulers. Here are a few warning signs, and cautionary examples, for any leaders out there who may be drifting toward full-blown dictatorship.
We take a look at recent and upcoming sporting events hosted by some of the world’s worst human rights offenders:
