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In a major foreign policy speech after becoming America’s top diplomat, Blinken said Freedom House’s latest “Freedom in the World 2021” report is “sobering.”
The report, which is an annual country-by-country assessment of political rights and civil liberties, lowered the freedom scores of 73 countries, representing 75% of the world’s population.
Democracy has also eroded in the United States, the report noted.
While still considered “free,” the United States experienced further democratic decline during the final year of Trump’s presidency, he said.
America’s “Freedom in the World” score has dropped 11 points over the past decade and is down three points in 2020 alone.
The changes pulled the country out of a cohort that included other leading democracies, such as France and Germany, and into the company of states with weaker democratic institutions, such as Romania and Panama, Freedom House said.
Blinken, in his inaugural foreign policy speech, responded to the report by saying that democracy is under threat.
“A new report from the independent watchdog Freedom House is sobering. Authoritarianism and nationalism are on the rise around the world. Governments are becoming less transparent and have lost the trust of the people. Elections are increasingly hotbeds of violence. Corruption grows. And the pandemic has accelerated many of these trends, ”Blinken said.
“The more we and all democracies can show the world that we can deliver, not only for our people, but also for each other, the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that theirs is the best way to deliver the fundamental needs and hopes of people. It is up to us to prove them wrong, ”he said.
“We will use the power of our example. We will encourage others to make key reforms, repeal bad laws, fight corruption and stop unfair practices. We will encourage democratic behavior ”, he added.
“But we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or trying to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force. We have tried these tactics in the past. As well-intentioned as they are, they haven’t worked. They have given “democracy promotion” a bad name and have lost the trust of the American people. We will do things differently, ”Blinken said.
According to the Freedom House report, government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated global democratic decline.
Repressive regimes and populist leaders worked to reduce transparency, promote false or misleading information, and crack down on the sharing of unfavorable data or critical opinions. Many of those who expressed objections to their government’s handling of the pandemic faced harassment or criminal charges.
The blockades were sometimes excessive, politicized or brutally applied by security agencies.
And undemocratic leaders around the world used the pandemic as cover to weaken political opposition and consolidate power, he said.
“In fact, many of the negative events of the year are likely to have lasting effects, meaning that the eventual end of the pandemic will not necessarily trigger an immediate revitalization of democracy,” the report said.
“In Hungary, for example, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán assumed emergency powers during the health crisis and misused them to withdraw financial assistance from municipalities led by opposition parties,” he added.
“In Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament in early March and, with new elections repeatedly delayed due to COVID-19, he ruled without a legislature for several months. Later in the year, both Hungary and Sri Lanka passed constitutional amendments that further strengthened the executive branch, ”he said.
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