Freedom in the World 2021 Report

Freedom in the World 2021 Report

Freedom is the power to act, speak and think as one wants without hindrance or restraint and the absence of a despotic government. Freedom House, a US-based Human rights watchdog releases the report titled “Freedom in the World 2021 – Democracy under Siege”. There is a decline in global democracy over the last 15 years. Nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration over the last year. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are the most free countries in the world, with a score of 100. While the least free countries are Tibet and Syria, with a score of 1.

What is Freedom in the World Report?

Freedom in the World report is an annual global report that tracks political rights and civil liberties. The report has been produced since 1973. The report’s methodology is derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN General Assembly adopted the declaration in 1948. The report assesses the individual’s real-world rights and freedoms. It doesn’t focus on governments or government performance in Human Rights.

Which countries are covers in this report?

The 2021 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The countries are awarded scores based on Political rights indicators such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, and government functioning and Civil liberties indicators are related to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy, and individual rights. These two score totals are then weighted equally to determine a country/territory’s status of a) Free b) Partly Free or c) Not Free. Countries are ranked from 1 to 100, 100 being the ranking for the freest country.

Rank of India in Freedom in the World 2021 Report

India’s rank has fallen from 83 to 88 out of 195 countries and 15 territories. India’s score decreased from 71 to 67. India’s status has been downgraded from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’. The report has highlighted the following reasons for the downgrade:

• Use of the sedition law and other charges in recent years to deter free speech
• Government’s coronavirus response including the lockdown.
• The migrant crisis and violent and discriminatory enforcement by police and civilian vigilantes
• Attack on Minorities
• The decrease in Judicial Independence among others.

• The Freedom House report has listed “Indian Kashmir” separately and retained its status as last year of “not free”. The score fell from 28 to 27.
• India’s Internet Freedom Score has stayed at 51. However, the report has stated that Internet freedom in India has declined dramatically for a third straight year. It is due to reasons like Internet shutdowns, blocked content, misinformation spread by political leaders, online harassment among others.