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| | style="background:#f99;" |Not Free | | style="background:#f99;" |Not Free | ||
| | style="background:#ff9;" | {{PHL}}* | | style="background:#ff9;" | {{PHL}}* | ||
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| | style="background:#ff9;" |Free | | style="background:#ff9;" |Partly Free | ||
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| | style="background:#ff9;" | {{E TIMOR}}* | | style="background:#ff9;" | {{E TIMOR}}* | ||
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| ===Annual surveys=== | ===Annual surveys=== | ||
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Revision as of 00:49, 19 March 2006
Freedom House is an advocacy group and political science data resource, focused primarily on international democracy. It currently has offices in about a dozen countries including the United States, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan; however, most of its board of directors and trustees are American, and it is headquarted in Washington, D.C.
Freedom House is a proponent of the view that the spread of democracy is the historical task of democratic nations around the world, and of the United States in particular. This view is sometimes called the Wilsonian view. It is best known for its annual reports on the degree of democratic freedoms in each country in the world, by which it seeks to assess the current state of civil and political rights in every nation on Earth. Political scientists and journalist around the world use these reports extensively in measuring the degree of democratic and civil freedoms around the world. (The other most-commonly used such data set is maintained by a UK-based group called Polity.)
Freedom House derives its funding from memberships, grants, contributions, sales and royalties, and from investments, interest, and dividends; in some years as much as 35% of its budget was provided by the United States government through grants by the National Endowment for Democracy. Other sources of such contributions include trade unions, corporations, and some thirty foundations.
History
The organization—founded by Wendell Wilkie and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941—describes itself as a clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world. During the 1940s, Freedom House supported the Marshall Plan and the establishment of NATO. During the 1950s and 1960s, it supported the U.S. civil rights movement. During the 1980s, it supported the Solidarity movement in Poland and the democratic opposition in the Philippines. Most recently, it supported citizens involved in revolutions in Serbia, the Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan.
Organization
Freedom House is still primarily an American organisation, although it has offices around the world. It does not identify itself with either the American Republican or the Democratic parties. Freedom House says of itself that it:
"has vigorously opposed dictatorships in Central America and Chile, apartheid in South Africa, the suppression of the Prague Spring, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the brutal violation of human rights in Cuba, Burma, the People's Republic of China, and Iraq. It has championed the rights of democratic activists, religious believers, trade unionists, journalists, and proponents of free markets."
It is controlled by a Board of Trustees, which it describes as composed of 'business and labor leaders, former senior government officials, scholars, writers, and journalists'. While some board members were born outside the United States, and many have been affiliated with international groups, all are current residents of the United States. The board is currently chaired by Peter Ackerman. Ackerman took over chairmanship of the board in September of 2005 from James Woolsey. Other notable board members include Steve Forbes, Samuel Huntington, Azar Nafisi, Farooq Kathwari, P. J. O'Rourke, Mara Liasson, and Mark Palmer.
Freedom House is funded by a number of foundations, including Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Soros Foundation. It also receives funding from the US Government through the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, and the State Department.
Freedom House is a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global network of non-governmental organisations that monitors violations of free expression, and campaigns to defend journalists, writers, Internet users and others who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Reports
Freedom House produces a yearly report, Freedom in the World, which purports to measure the degree of democracy and freedom in countries around the world, and produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties in each state and territory, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). This same report has been in use for decades by political scientists around the world to measure the state of democratic freedoms in all nations and significant disputed territories. This report is also now being used to judge good governance in countries being considered for President George W. Bush's Millennium Challenge Account foreign aid program. Freedom House's country ratings are made available annually, with its past ratings also available.
In its 2003 report, for example, Canada (judged as fully free and democratic) got a perfect score of a "1" in civil liberties and a "1" in political rights, earning it the designation of "free." Nigeria got a "5" and a "4", earning it the designation of "partly free," while North Korea scored the lowest rank of "7-7", and was thus dubbed "not free." Freedom House gives a limited explanation of it's metrics and methodology saying it considers questions such as "Is the population treated equally under the law?" and " Are the legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections?".
Until 2003, countries whose combined average ratings for political rights and for civil liberties fell between 1.0 and 2.5 were designated "free"; those between 3.0 and 5.5 "partly free"; and those between 5.5 and 7.0 "not free". Beginning with the ratings for 2003, countries whose combined average ratings fall between 3.0 and 5.0 are "partly free", and those between 5.5 and 7.0 are "not free."
Freedom House also produces annual reports on press freedom (Press Freedom Survey), governance in the nations of the former Soviet Union (Nations in Transit), and countries on the borderline of democracy (Countries at the Crossroads). In addition, one-time reports have included a survey of women's freedoms in the Middle East.
Freedom House generally uses standard geographic regions for its reports, though it groups the countries of the Middle East and North Africa together, separately from Sub-Saharan Africa; and it still uses the arguably outdated concept of Western Europe, to include countries such as Turkey and Cyprus, while categorizing Central and Eastern Europe separately -- a division stemming from the Cold War era which ignores the eastwards expansion of such organizations such the EU and NATO. However, these groupings have nothing to do with the individual country ratings; they're merely used to make nations easier to find when perusing their reports, and also for comparative statistics between the modern day and the ratings of decades past.
Other Activities
In addition to these reports, Freedom House participates in advocacy initiatives, currently focused on North Korea, Africa, and religious freedom. It has offices in a number of countries, where it promotes and assists local human rights workers and non-government organizations.
On January 12, 2006, as part of a crackdown on unauthorized nongovernmental organizations, the Uzbek government ordered Freedom House to suspend operations in Uzbekistan. Resource and Information Centers managed by Freedom House in Tashkent, Namangan, and Samarkand offered access to materials and books on human rights, as well as technical equipment, such as computers, copiers and Internet. The government warned that criminal proceedings could be brought against Uzbek staff members and visitors following recent amendments to the criminal code and Code on Administrative Liability of Uzbekistan. Other human rights groups have been similarly threatened and obliged to suspend operations.
Criticisms
Freedom House has been accused of having a 'right-wing bias' and of compiling unfair ratings. Specific ratings that have been attacked include Cuba's rating of 7-7 as well as Cuba's inclusion in Freedom House's list of the world's 'worst' (most repressive) regimes. Supporters respond that Freedom House is often critical of both the United States (which received a 'declining freedom' designation in 2004) and its traditional allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel and Chile. Morever, since Freedom House has consistently used the same ratings measures for decades, its validity has been accepted by most political scientists.
Similarly, claims that Freedom House favours American definitions of political rights and civil liberties, allegedly because it is partly funded by U.S. government agencies, ignore the fact that Freedom House derives its research methodology directly from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, not from any American document, and has been using the same measurement standards for decades.
Freedom House's work has also aroused criticism from those who claim to favour the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. , or who worry that, for instance, entitling a report "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques" study falls short of the ideal of neutral assessment of freedom. Others would retort that Saudi Arabia is a nation which routinely executes homosexuals, refuses to allow women the right to drive or go in public with their heads exposed or even to travel without their husbands' permission, and which outlaws even the possession of non-muslim religious works by its citizens, and that there can be no possible measure of freedom that makes any sense which treats Saudi Arabia in a "neutral" fashion.
Other problems with the methodology have been alleged:
- Constitutional and treaty restrictions on civil liberties are excluded from the analysis. Many democracies qualify the right to freedom of speech with de facto exclusion of certain groups, views, or types of speech. In Germany, for example, some civil liberties are conditional on support for the German Constitution, and in much of western Europe it is illegal to deny the Holocaust.
- Freedom House excludes certain groups from its assessment of freedom. Most notably, the position of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay is excluded from the assessment of the United States freedom ranking. The U.S. government claims that they are illegal enemy combatants and that their detention is justified. In any case, Freedom House is engaged in broadbrush surveys involving millions of people and does not focus on specific cases that happen from time to be spotlighted for short-term political reasons.
2006 Ratings
NOTE: The ratings in this table reflect global events from 1 December 2004 through 30 November 2005. An asterisk (*) indicates countries which are electoral democracies. To qualify as an "electoral democracy", a state must have satisfied the following criteria: 1) A competitive, multiparty political system; 2) Universal adult suffrage for all citizens (with exceptions for restrictions that states may legitimately place on citizens as sanctions for criminal offenses); 3) Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy, reasonable ballot security, and in the absence of massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will; 4) Significant public access of major political parties to the electorate through the media and through generally open political campaigning
Freedom House's term "electoral democracy" differs from "liberal democracy" in that the latter also implies the presence of a substantial array of civil liberties. In the survey, all Free countries qualify as both electoral and liberal democracies. By contrast, some Partly Free countries qualify as electoral, but not liberal, democracies.
PR - Political Rights CL - Civil Liberties
Sub-Saharan Africa
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Angola
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Liberia*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Benin*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Madagascar*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Botswana*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Malawi*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Burkina Faso
|
5 | 3 | Partly Free |  Mali*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Burundi*
|
3 | 5 | Partly Free |  Mauritania
|
6 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Cameroon
|
6 | 6 | Not Free |  Mauritius*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Cape Verde*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Mozambique*
|
3 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Central African Republic*
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |  Namibia*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Chad
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Niger*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Comoros*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |  Nigeria*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
| Template:CNG-Bra | 5 | 5 | Partly Free |  Rwanda
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
| Template:CNG-Kin | 6 | 6 | Not Free |  São Tomé and Príncipe*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Ivory Coast
|
6 | 6 | Not Free |  Senegal*
|
2 | 3 | Free |
 Djibouti
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |  Seychelles*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Equatorial Guinea
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |  Sierra Leone*
|
4 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Eritrea
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |  Somalia
|
6 | 7 | Not Free |
 Ethiopia
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |  South Africa*
|
1 | 2 | Free |
 Gabon
|
6 | 4 | Partly Free |  Sudan
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Gambia
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |  Eswatini
|
7 | 5 | Not Free |
 Ghana*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Tanzania
|
4 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Guinea
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Togo
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Guinea-Bissau
|
3 | 4 | Partly Free |  Uganda
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Kenya*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |  Zambia
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Lesotho*
|
2 | 3 | Free |  Zimbabwe
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |
Americas
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Antigua and Barbuda*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Guyana*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Argentina*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Haiti
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |
 Bahamas*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Honduras*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Barbados*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Jamaica*
|
2 | 3 | Free |
 Belize*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Mexico*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Bolivia*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |  Nicaragua*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Brazil*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Panama*
|
1 | 2 | Free |
 Canada*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Paraguay*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Chile*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Peru*
|
2 | 3 | Free |
 Colombia*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |  Saint Kitts and Nevis*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Costa Rica*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Saint Lucia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Cuba
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines*
|
2 | 1 | Free |
 Dominica*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Suriname*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Dominican Republic*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Trinidad and Tobago*
|
3 | 2 | Free |
 Ecuador*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |  United States*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 El Salvador*
|
2 | 3 | Free |  Uruguay*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Grenada*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Venezuela*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Guatemala*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |
Asia-Pacific
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Afghanistan
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |  Nauru*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Australia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Nepal
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Bangladesh*
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |  New Zealand*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Bhutan
|
6 | 5 | Not Free | Template:NKO | 7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Brunei
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Pakistan
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
| Template:BURMA | 7 | 7 | Not Free |  Palau*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Cambodia
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Papua New Guinea*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
| Template:PRC-mainland | 7 | 6 | Not Free |  Philippines*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
| Template:E TIMOR* | 3 | 3 | Partly Free |  Samoa*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Fiji
|
4 | 3 | Partly Free |  Singapore
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |
| Template:INDIA* | 2 | 3 | Free |  Solomon Islands*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Indonesia*
|
2 | 3 | Free | Template:SKO* | 1 | 2 | Free |
 Japan*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Sri Lanka*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Kiribati*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Republic of China (Taiwan)*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Laos
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |  Thailand*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Malaysia
|
4 | 4 | Partly Free |  Tonga
|
5 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Maldives
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Tuvalu*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Marshall Islands*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Vanuatu*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Federated States of Micronesia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Vietnam
|
7 | 5 | Not Free |
 Mongolia*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
Central & Eastern Europe & the former Soviet Union
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Albania*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |  Lithuania*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Armenia
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free | Macedonia Macedonia* | 3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Azerbaijan
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Member of the Order of Liberty*
|
3 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Belarus
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |  Poland*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
4 | 3 | Partly Free |  Romania*
|
2 | 2 | Free |
 Bulgaria*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Russia
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Croatia*
|
2 | 2 | Free |  Serbia and Montenegro*
|
3 | 2 | Free |
 Czech Republic*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Slovakia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Estonia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Slovenia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Georgia*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free | Template:TAJ | 6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Hungary*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Turkmenistan
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Kazakhstan
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Ukraine*
|
3 | 2 | Free |
 Kyrgyzstan
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |  Uzbekistan
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Latvia*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
Western Europe
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Andorra*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Luxembourg*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Austria*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Malta*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Belgium*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Monaco*
|
2 | 1 | Free |
 Cyprus*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Netherlands*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Denmark*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Norway*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Finland*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Portugal*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 France*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  San Marino*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Germany*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Spain*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Greece*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Sweden*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Iceland*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Switzerland*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Ireland*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  Turkey*
|
3 | 3 | Partly Free |
 Italy*
|
1 | 1 | Free |  United Kingdom*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
 Liechtenstein*
|
1 | 1 | Free |
Middle East & North Africa
| Country | PR | CL | Status | Country | PR | CL | Status |
 Algeria
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Libya
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Bahrain
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |  Morocco
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |
 Egypt
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Oman
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Iran
|
6 | 6 | Not Free |  Qatar
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Iraq
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |  Saudi Arabia
|
7 | 6 | Not Free |
 Israel*
|
1 | 2 | Free |  Syria
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |
 Jordan
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |  Tunisia
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Kuwait
|
4 | 5 | Partly Free |  United Arab Emirates
|
6 | 6 | Not Free |
 Lebanon
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free |  Yemen
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |
Related/Disputed Territories
| Country / Territory | PR | CL | Status | Country / Territory | PR | CL | Status |
| Template:ABKHAZIA (Georgia) | 5 | 5 | Partly Free | Template:KOSOVO (Serbia & Montenegro) | 6 | 5 | Not Free |
| Template:MC (People's Republic of China) | 6 | 4 | Partly Free | Template:N CYPRUS | 2 | 2 | Free |
| Template:N-KARABAKH (Azerbaijan) | 5 | 5 | Partly Free |  Hong Kong (People's Republic of China)
|
5 | 2 | Partly Free |
 Puerto Rico (United States)
|
1 | 1 | Free | West Bank and Gaza (Israeli Administered)
|
6 | 5 | Not Free |
 Tibet (People's Republic of China)
|
7 | 7 | Not Free |  Palestinian Authority Administered Territories
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |
| Template:TRANSNISTRIA (Moldova) | 6 | 6 | Not Free |  Kashmir (Indian Administered)
|
5 | 5 | Partly Free |
| {{WSA}} template missing ID. (Morocco) | 7 | 6 | Not Free | Kashmir (Pakistani Administered)
|
7 | 5 | Not Free |
See also
External links
- Freedom House
- Freedom House:when “freedom” is only a pretext, Voltaire Network, September 2004
- What is "good" press freedom? The difficulty of measuring freedom of the press worldwide, Christina Holtz-Bacha, 2004.
- eXile - Issue #229 - "Freedom"’s Just Another Word For Fascism, Mark Ames, 2005
Annual surveys
- Freedom House Publications
- 2006 essay and survey data
- Annual Report 2005
- Annual Report 2004
- Annual Report 2003
- Annual Report 2002
- Annual Report 2001
References
- "Rightweb's Group Watch info for Freedom House". Retrieved 2006-01-20.