Its Official: The Names Of The Worst Of The Worst Human Rights Abusers

Freedom House, a New York based, non-profit NGO, has been watching and monitoring the world-wide threat to human rights, from as far back as 1980. Its 2009 annual report shows that at the start of 2009, 54 percent of the world's population still live under the rule of repressive governments.



•89 (46%) of the world's 193 countries are ranked as Free, where the population has freedom of a large variety of political and human rights

•62 (32%) live in only Partly Free countries, where the rule of law weakly enforced

•42 (22%) of the world's countries are graded as Not Free with the people living with only basic human rights and political freedom is absolutely unknown.



Of the 42 countries ranked as Not Free, eight were listed with the Worst of the Worst possible rating. These countries included: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The list also included the two territories, Chechnya and Tibet.



These countries were followed by a slightly lesser rating: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Zimbabwe, as well as the two territories of South Ossetia (Georgia) and Western Sahara (Morocco). In these nations there is no place for private discussion, while political opposition is fiercely oppressed. All criticism of the state is censored and punishment severely administered. The people's lives are totally state controlled and authorities are all-invasive. The people live with the overshadowing fear of reprisal for any form of self-determining thoughts, or actions.



The countries perpetrating human rights abuse, vary from the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and East Asia. They include a number of different cultures and various levels of economic growth. Countries like Zimbabwe have descended from being one of Africa's wealthiest nations, to become one of its poorest, besieged by disease, starvation and monstrous inflation.



Through the last thirty years there has been a major extension of human independence. Many tyrannical leaders have found themselves before international courts, while some are still on trial. Numerous states have done away with their dictatorship and embraced democracy and opted for basic civil freedom. There is universal backing for the:



• values of democracy

• rule of law

• freedom of association

• freedom of speech,

• rights of the minorities

• plus numerous other world-wide recognized basic human rights.



Numerous countries that have attained measured and sustainable progress in long-term economic growth, also have gained a respect for democratic practices.



However, Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House says "Although democracy has scored impressive gains in recent times, we have also begun to experience a new drive to prevent the further spread of democracy and where possible, roll back some of the achievements that have already been registered". This involves shutting down independent media, marginalizing political challengers, forbidding independent think tanks and preventing NGOs from obtaining vital resources.



As well as all that, a lot of the worst human rights perpetrators have signed up in loose coalitions attached to the United Nations to redirect awareness away from their records of domination and tyranny.