Ukraine upgraded to "free" status in Freedom House's global survey
NEW YORK - Ukraine has been upgraded from a "partly free" country and designated as "free," according to an annual report released by Freedom House on December 19.
The global survey, "Freedom in the World 2006," which covered events throughout 2005, ranked 192 countries on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing the most free and 7 representing the least free rating. In this year's survey, Ukraine received a rating of 3 for political rights and a 2 for civil liberties. Both of these ratings were increases for Ukraine, which last year scored a 4 in both categories.
On the whole, the state of freedom worldwide showed substantial improvement, with 27 countries and one territory registering gains and only nine countries showing setbacks.
The people of the Arab Middle East experienced an increase in political rights and civil liberties in 2005.
"The modest but heartening advances in the Arab Middle East result from activism by citizen groups and reforms by governments in about equal measures," Thomas O. Melia, acting executive director of Freedom House, said. "This emerging trend reminds us that men and women in this region share the universal desire to live in free societies."
"As we welcome the stirrings of change in the Middle East, it is equally important that we focus on the follow-through in other regions and appreciate the importance of the continuing consolidation of democracy in Indonesia, Ukraine and other nations," Mr. Melia said.
"These global findings are encouraging," said Arch Puddington, director of research at Freedom House. "Among other things, the past year has been notable for terrorist violence, ethnic cleansing, civil conflict, catastrophic natural disasters and geopolitical polarization. That freedom could thrive in this environment is impressive."
In East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, there is now evidence of a deepening chasm. In Central Europe and parts of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, democracy and freedom prevail; in the countries of the former Soviet Union, however, progress has been decidedly mixed.
Of the former Soviet republics, the report found that one country (Ukraine) is free, four are partly free, and seven are not free.
Further gains in the region will likely depend on the development of the kind of mature and credible opposition that emerged in Ukraine and Georgia prior to their non-violent revolutions. At the same time, authoritarian leaderships in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and, most importantly, Russia have adopted policies that will make it more difficult for the development of a genuine civil society and will impede the development of a democratic political opposition, the report noted.
Freedom House, which first began measuring world freedom in 1972, also announced that detailed country narratives would be released in book form in summer 2006. The current ratings reflect global events from December 1, 2004, through November 30, 2005.
According to the survey, 89 countries are free, the same as the previous year. Nearly 3 billion inhabitants (46 percent of the world's population) in this category enjoy open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life and independent media.
Another 58 countries representing 1.2 billion people (18 percent) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which the norm may be corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic and religious strife, and a setting in which a single political party enjoys dominance.
The survey found that 45 countries are not free. The 2.3 billion inhabitants (35 percent) of these countries are widely and systematically denied basic civil liberties and basic political rights are absent.
This article is based on a Freedom House press release.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 2005, No. 52, Vol. LXXIII
| Home Page |