WUNRN
FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2015 REPORT
This Report contains many themes and data that impact
human rights and social justice for women.
Direct Link to Full 32-Page 2015 Freedom House Report:
https://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2015#.VMlfjGjF8b8
http://www.rferl.org/content/human-rights-freedom-house/26817217.html
WEBSITE & FULL REPORT HAVE MULTIPLE MAPS, CHARTS, COUNTRY LISTINGS.
Overview
More
aggressive tactics by authoritarian regimes and an upsurge in terrorist attacks
contributed to a disturbing decline in global freedom in 2014. Freedom in the
World 2015 found an overall drop in freedom for the ninth consecutive year.
Nearly twice as many countries suffered declines as registered gains—61 to 33—and the number of countries with improvements hit its lowest point since the nine-year erosion began. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a rollback of democratic gains by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoðan’s intensified campaign against press freedom and civil society, and further centralization of authority in China were evidence of a growing disdain for democratic standards that was found in nearly all regions of the world.
Global findings
The number of countries designated by Freedom in the World as Free in 2014
stood at 89, representing 46 percent of the world’s 195 polities and nearly 2.9
billion people—or 40 percent of the global population. The number of Free
countries increased by one from the previous year’s report.
The number of countries qualifying as Partly Free stood at 55, or 28
percent of all countries assessed, and they were home to just over 1.7 billion
people, or 24 percent of the world’s total. The number of Partly Free
countries decreased by four from the previous year.
A total of 51 countries were deemed Not Free, representing 26 percent of
the world’s polities. The number of people living under Not Free conditions
stood at 2.6 billion people, or 36 percent of the global population, though it
is important to note that more than half of this number lives in just one
country: China. The number of Not Free countries increased by three from 2013.
The number of electoral democracies stood at 125, three more than in 2013.
Five countries achieved electoral democracy status: Fiji, Kosovo, Madagascar,
the Maldives, and the Solomon Islands. Two countries, Libya and Thailand, lost
their designation as electoral democracies.
Tunisia
rose from Partly Free to Free, while Guinea- Bissau improved from Not Free to
Partly Free. Four countries fell from Partly Free to Not Free: Burundi, Libya,
Thailand, and Uganda.