Freedom House a New York based, non-profit non-government organization,has been monitoring world-wide threats to human rights as far back as 1980. Its recent annual report shows that at the start 2009, 54 percent of the world’s population are forced to live under the rule of repressive regimes. â€89 (46%)of the world’s 193 countries are rated as Free, where they have the freedom of a wide range of political and human rights. â€62 (32%) live in Partly Free countries, where the rule of law enforcement is weak â€. 42 (22%) of the world’s countries are ranked as Not Free with the people living with only basic human rights and political freedom is completely unknown. Of the 42 countries designated as Not Free, eight were marked with the Worst of the Worst possible ranking.These countries included: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The list also included the two territories, Chechnya and Tibet. At a slightly lower level of rating came the countries, Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Loas, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Zibabwe, alongside the two territories of South Ossetia (Georgia) and Western Sahara (Morocco). In these countries very little scope is permitted for private discussion, while political challengers are ruthlessly oppressed. Any criticism of the government is censored and penalized. The people’s lives are completely government controlled and all invasive, with fear of revenge for free {thoughts, or action. The countries perpetrating human rights abuse stretch from the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and East Asia. They represent a wide variety of cultures and levels of economic growth. Countries such as Zimbabwe have descended from being one of Africa’s richest nations, to being one of its poorest, besieged by disease, starvation and monstrous inflation. Throughout the last thirty years there has been a significant increase of human freedom. Many despotic leaders have been taken to task in international tribunals while some are still on trial. Many have discarded tyranny and embraced democratic rule and respect for fundamental civil freedom. There is a global backing support for the: â€values of democracy â€rule of law â€liberty of association â€freedom of speech, â€rights of minority groups â€plus other fundamental globally recognized human rights. Several of the nations that have made measurable and sustainable progress in long-term economic development, also respect the practices of democracy. However, Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House says â€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 includes closing down independent media, marginalizing political competitors, forbidding independent think tanks and stopping NGOs from receiving vital resources. As well as all that, a lot of the worst human rights offenders have become a member of loose coalitions belonging to the United Nations in order to redirect awareness from their history of repression.
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