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Mozambique among countries with largest decline in freedom and democracy – Freedom House
9:02 CAT | 04 Mar 2020
All images: Freedom House
Mozambique was one of the countries where democracy retreated the most over the last year, according to Freedom in the World 2020, the latest edition of the annual country-by-country assessment of political rights and civil liberties, released today by Freedom House. [To read the full report, click HERE]
According to the ‘Freedom in the World 2020′ report, “the countries with the year’s largest gains and declines were concentrated in Africa”.
“Benin, Mozambique, and Tanzania suffered from flawed elections and state repression of dissent, while Sudan, Madagascar, and Ethiopia benefited from progress toward reform and more democratic rule,” the document reads.
Mozambique dropped six points compared to the previous report and is classified as “Partly Free”, with an aggregate score of 45 out of 100 possible points: 14 points for political rights (out of 40 possible) and 31 points for civil liberties (out of 69 possible).
Benin fell by 13 points and Tanzania by five.
The aggregate score combines the assessment of the score on political rights (0-40 points) and civil liberties (0-60).
In our region it’s not just where you are in #FreedomInTheWorld but which way you are going – up: #Sudan #Ethiopia #Madagascar #DRC #eSwatini or down: #Benin #Mozambique #Tanzania #Burkina Faso #Guinea #Mali #Nigeria pic.twitter.com/aOmCzLdUAe
— Freedom House Africa (@FreedomHouseAfr) March 4, 2020
Benin Mozambique and Tanzania are among the 12 countries which registered the largest one-year decline in their 2019 aggregate scores, a group which includes Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile and India (-4 points), Guinea-Conakry, Haiti, Mali, Nigeria and Venezuela (-3 points).
In a 10-year assessment, Mozambique registers a drop of 14 points in the global classification and is part of the group of 29 countries that most worsened their performance over the past decade.
In the opposite direction, Guinea-Bissau (+4 points) is among the group of countries that most improved the assessment regarding freedom and democracy in 2019 compared to the previous year.
Ethiopia, Madagascar and Sudan (+5 points), North Macedonia (+4 points) and Democratic Republic of Congo and Eswatini (+3 points) are also part of this group.
Classified as “Partly Free”, Guinea-Bissau achieved an aggregate score of 46 points, with 17 points on political rights and 29 on civil liberties.
The countries considered “Free” by the report are those witch reach an aggregate score above 70 points.
The “Free” Portuguese speaking countries in this report are: Portugal (96 points), Cape Verde (92 points), São Tomé and Príncipe (84 points) Brazil (75 points) and Timor-Leste (71 points)
Angola (32 points) and Equatorial Guinea (6 points) are the two Portuguese-speaking countries classified as “Not Free”.
Regarding Angola, Freedom House points out that the dynamics and progress registered after the change of leadership in 2017, slowed down in 2019 and that “the results of President João Lourenço’s reform agenda, with its emphasis on battling corruption, have yet to be fully realised”.
Equatorial Guinea is among the 10 “Worst of the Worst” countries of this report, meaning that it is among the least free of the 49 “Not Free” countries in the world, scoring a zero on political rights and of a six on civil liberties.
Gap between setbacks and gains widened
Of the 195 countries assessed, 83 (43 percent) were rated “Free”, 63 (32 percent) were “Partly Free”, and 49 (25 percent) were “Not Free”. The share of “Free” countries has declined by 3 percentage points over the last decade, while the percentage of “Partly Free” and “Not Free” countries rose by two and one points, respectively.
The gap between setbacks and gains widened. People in 64 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties in 2019, while those in just 37 countries experienced improvements. The difference was smaller in 2018, when 68 countries declined and 50 made gains.
Europe is the region with the highest percentage of “Free” countries (81%) and the Middle East and Northern Africa the area with the least (11%).
Globally, Freedom House concludes that “democracy is under assault” and that “the effects are evident not just in authoritarian states like China, Russia, and Iran, but also in countries with a long track record of upholding basic rights and freedoms.”.
“While protest movements in every region have illustrated widespread popular demand for better governance, they have yet to reverse the overall pattern of declining freedom,” the organisation points out.
According to the report, countries that suffered setbacks in 2019 outnumbered those making gains by nearly two to one, marking the 14th consecutive year of deterioration in global freedom.
During this period, 25 of the world’s 41 established democracies experienced net losses in the Freedom in The World ranking.
The report also denounces what it considers “alarming global erosion” in governments’ commitment to pluralism, a defining feature of liberal democracy. “The two most glaring examples” of this erosion would be “China, where the regime’s multiyear campaign of cultural annihilation against the Uighur minority and other predominantly Muslim groups has been well documented, and India, which earned the largest score decline among the world’s 25 most populous democracies in this year’s report”.
Meanwhile, “democratic processes in the United States are under threat as well” as the country “declined by eight points on a 100-point scale over the past 10 years” despite its score remaining flat this year.
Freedom in the World 2020 assesses the political rights and civil liberties of 210 countries and territories worldwide. The report focuses on developments that occurred between January and December 2019.
The official launch of this report will be taking place on March 11, in Washington DC, in the United States..
Freedom House is an independent organisation which monitors the state of democracy, freedoms and human rights worldwide.
Source: Lusa
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