Freedom: How Fares The World

"[Venezuela represents a] textbook case of political and economic dysfunction [ where a] toxic mixture of corruption, misrule and oil-price declines brought shortages, rampant inflation, and enhanced repression."

"Religious freedom is limited in Iran, whose population is largely Shiite Muslim but includes Sunni Muslim, Baha’i, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian minorities. The Special Court for the Clergy investigates religious figures for alleged crimes and has generally been used to persecute clerics who stray from the official interpretation of Islam or criticize the supreme leader. Sunnis enjoy equal rights under the law but face discrimination in practice; there is no Sunni mosque in Tehran, and few Sunnis hold senior government posts. Sufi Muslims have also faced persecution by the authorities. Since the leader of the Sufi order Nematollahi Gonabadi was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to four years in prison, security forces have repeatedly clashed with members of the order in Gonabad and Kavar."

"The constitution recognizes Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians as religious minorities, and they are generally allowed to worship without interference, so long as they do not proselytize. Conversion by Muslims to a non-Muslim religion is punishable by death. Pressure on Christian converts and churches persisted in 2013. In May, plainclothes security forces arrested three Christian converts during a worship session in Isfahan. Also that month, the authorities shut down Iran’s oldest Persian-language Protestant church in Tehran and arrested one of its pastors. In August, a court upheld the eight-year prison sentence of Iranian-American Christian convert Saeed Abedini."

Freedom House, annual study

Brazil and other Latin American democracies were recognized as morally at fault for their failure to respond to "Venezuela's deterioration" other than "with silence". India and Indonesia were criticized by the Freedom House report for their failure to encourage a return to civilian rule in Thailand. Criticism for lack of neighbourly responsibility, since they're linked by association, and are seen to have a social-civil obligation to respond when their neighbourhood has been sullied and stifled.

In all, the report establishes its global search result that global freedom has seen a decline, with one-third of the world's population representing 2.6-billion people languishing in countries that are not deemed to be completely free. The state of freedom was evaluated in the annual study for 195 countries and 15 territories. The result was that 61 countries were determined to have become less free in 2014, while a mere 31 saw internal freedoms improve.

Pointing out the obviously inescapable, terrorism had a devastating impact in the Middle East and West Africa, where 'groups' massacred both security forces and civilians, where foreigners were taken hostage, and where slaughter took place with impunity and religious minorities were enslaved or killed.

Singled out for particular distinction were Syria with its civil war where the government forces were as brutal as the rebels they fought, and competing for mass atrocity distinctions with terrorist jihadists militias running amok in the region, notably Islamic State, ranking Syria among the world's worst countries for lack of freedom, let alone the opportunity to live out one's life.

Tunisia was held out as the shining example in the region, one Muslim country among many that has managed to live within the boundaries of civil social behaviour, despite unrest and political engagement in competing ideologies that has roiled other countries for whom Islam is their guiding principle and lodestar.

It passed the stress test with flying colours: democratic elections: check; new constitution; check; the sole North African country to represent the Arab world's only nation to gain the status of "Free". The rest of the Arab world appears to have, or be in the process of imploding. Africa and the Far East and Russia in Eastern Europe exemplars of failure on the freedom scale.

Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine received a particular citation giving Russia the "Not Free" status in view of ethnic groups opposing Russia's annexation were summarily deprived of their rights. The report specifically criticizes President Vladimir Putin and his government for its attitude toward dissenting views of government, along with its repression of gays.

The United States didn't escape unscathed, with mention of the CIA's terrorism suspects torture int he wake of 9/11, and protests in 2014 over police killings of unarmed black men: "the repeated failure of prosecutors to secure indictments of the officers responsible", received particular mention. Despite which, needless to say, the U.S. remains among the highest-ranked countries for freedom, alongside Canada.

That "Leaders of democracies compete for China's favour" is deplored. And the fact that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi "is treated as a strong ruler and partner in the fight against terrorism", more or less overlooks that without such benevolent dictators in highly flammable parts of the world, more carnage would be likely to erupt.