Uzbekistan Ranks Among Countries Experiencing Heightened Authoritarianism

According to the latest rankings released by international organization Freedom House, which assesses democracy and human rights, all five countries in Central Asia have been classified as experiencing an increase in authoritarianism.  This information was published on the organization’s official website.

The report's authors argue that the governments of the listed countries, namely Belarus, Azerbaijan, Russia, and the Central Asian nations, have failed in their fundamental duty to protect the physical well-being of their citizens, thereby directly endangering the lives and safety of numerous individuals.

The rankings also reveal that while Uzbekistan surpasses countries like Russia and Belarus in terms of democratic standards, it still lags behind Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in the overall assessment.

Within the ranking, a concerning eight out of 29 countries were categorized as exhibiting the worst form of "entrenched authoritarianism."

In its annual report, Freedom House evaluates the level of democracy in countries that were formerly part of the communist bloc in Europe, the Balkans, and Eurasia.

Various factors are considered, including national democratic governance, electoral processes, civil society, independent media, local democratic governance and corruption.  Each category is assigned a rating on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 indicating the highest level and 1 representing the lowest.