Freedom House’s annual report, released on February 26, 2024, reveals a global decline in freedom, with authoritarians solidifying their grip. However, South Asia emerged as a region of bright spots, with notable improvements in several countries.
The Washington-based pro-democracy research group elevated two countries to the status of “free” – Senegal, where the opposition triumphed after the outgoing president’s attempt to delay elections was defeated, and Bhutan, which consolidated its transition to democracy with competitive polls. Bhutan gained the distinction of being the only South Asian country classified as free.
Other countries in the region made significant gains in the index without changing categories. In Bangladesh, leader Sheikh Hasina fled in the face of a revolt, and in Sri Lanka, Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected president on an anti-corruption platform, breaking the stranglehold of the two long-dominant parties.
The largest score improvement in the index was seen in Indian-administered Kashmir, which held elections for the first time since the Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi revoked the Muslim-majority region’s special status in 2019. However, India as a whole saw further deterioration, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to gain influence over judicial appointments. The group downgraded India from “free” to “partly free” in 2021.
Ms. Yana Gorokhovskaia, the co-author of the report, noted that 2024 was especially volatile due to the high number of elections. “The big picture is that this was another year of the same trajectory of a global decline in freedom, but because of all the elections, it was more dynamic than previous years,” she said.
Both Bangladesh and Syria, where Islamist-led fighters toppled longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in December, saw immediate improvements in civil liberties. However, Gorokhovskaia emphasized that it would be a longer road to see gains in political representation, as political rights largely depend on institutions that are easy to destroy but very hard to build up.
A rare bright spot in the Middle East was Jordan, which was upgraded from “not free” to “partly free” due to reforms that allowed more competitive elections. On the other hand, four countries were downgraded from “partly free” to “not free” – Kuwait, Niger, Tanzania, and Thailand.
Thailand saw a court disband the party that won the most votes in elections and then dismiss the prime minister from the second-ranking party after an ethics complaint by senators backed by the powerful military. Kuwait’s emir disbanded Parliament after elections, while in Tanzania, Freedom House pointed to a crackdown on protesters under President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Niger came under the full grip of the military after a 2023 coup ousted elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
Tunisia, El Salvador, and Haiti also saw steep declines. The only country given a perfect 100 score on freedom was Finland, with New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden all right behind at 99.
Freedom House, founded in 1941 with bipartisan US support, receives US government funding but is independently administered. The non-profit group has planned layoffs after US President Donald Trump froze money aimed at democracy promotion.