Brussels, 20/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The situation of individual freedom and political rights deteriorated in the world in 2012 - for the seventh consecutive year - because there are more countries which recorded a fall in these rights (28 out of 195) than countries that saw their situation evolve positively (16), a report by Freedom House reveals, which was presented to the European Parliament on Wednesday 20 February.
Freedom House considers that 43% of the world population lives in one of 90 “free” countries. Although the EU member states are part of this, they must pay attention to growing nationalist sentiment, the report states, underlining the repression during demonstrations in Greece, the scandal of phone hacking in the United Kingdom and the political situation in Romania.
The report states that 58 countries are “partially free” with limited respect of human rights. Lastly, 47 countries are considered as “not free”, with North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Somalia, China and Cuba inter alia at the bottom of the league table.
Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Burma/Myanmar and Cote d'Ivoire made the biggest progress in 2012 - in contrast with Mali, Madagascar, Iraq, Bahrain and Gambia.
According to Freedom House, 2012 saw “the return of the iron hand” in Russia (Vladimir Putin), making the Eurasia region a rival with the Middle East as one of the most repressive regions in the world. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine seem less free than in 2011, and Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Belarus remain among the most repressive states in the world. Armenia and Georgia have made progress.
For Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, the report highlights a combination of gains and declines, the great challenge of inconsistency and a worrying escalation of armed conflicts. It states concern about risks to individual freedom in Turkey. The report is available at: http://www.freedomhouse.org/reports . (CG/transl.fl)