(TibetanReview.net, Feb26’22) – With an overall score of just 1 out of 100, Tibet is the least free country or territory in the world, sharing the spot with South Sudan and Syria and ranking below even China and North Korea, according to the annual survey of the US-based international rights group Freedom House released on Feb 24.
In Political rights, Tibet has scored -2 out of 40, making it the second least free and sharing the spot with China and Crimea, while South Sudan, Syria and Western Sahara ranked at the bottom with a score of -3 each.
In Civil liberties too, Tibet ranked as the second least free, with a score 3 out of 60 and sharing the spot with North Korea, while Eritrea and Turkmenistan ranked at the bottom with a score of 2 each.
China’s overall score was 9 out of 100, and the country ranked as “not free”.
The report, Freedom in the World 2022, rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties through sets of objective criteria in 210 countries and territories.
Led mainly by China and the likes of Russia, the report, which examines the rights situation in 195 countries and 15 territories, noted that authoritarian regimes around the world had been making gains against liberal democracies and encouraging more leaders to abandon democracy.
The report said countries with aggregate decline in score had outnumbered those with gains every year over the past 16 years.
The latest survey has found 66 countries and territories not free, 60 partly free, and 84 free.