Freedom House report points to global decline in liberty, Thailand named ‘partly free’
Thailand has fared slightly better this year when it comes to freedom, inching up from a “not free” country to a “partly free” country, thanks to the highly competitive general election last May.
The “Freedom in the World 2024” report, released on Friday by US-based political advocacy organisation Freedom House, points to a decline in global freedom over the past 18 years.
“Countries with aggregate score declines in Freedom in the World have outnumbered those with gains every year for the past 18 years,” it said.
In the report, Thailand was given a total score of 36 out of 100, up from 30 last year. In terms of political rights, it earned 12 out of 40 and 24 out of 60 for civil liberties.
“Thailand’s status improved from ‘Not Free’ to ‘Partly Free’ due to competitive parliamentary elections and the formation of a new governing coalition by what had been a major opposition party, though unelected senators ensured that the party with the most votes was excluded,” the report said.
It also said that the government formation by the newly elected House of Representatives was “significantly distorted” by a constitutional system inherited from the military junta that ruled the country from 2014 to 2019.
“The more competitive balloting, and the fact that the second-ranked opposition party [Pheu Thai] made it into government, led to score improvements that pushed the country across the threshold from Not Free to Partly Free status. But Thailand’s democratic future remains in doubt, and its overall score, which dropped by 21 points after the 2014 coup, has yet to substantially recover,” the report said.
Freedom House also pointed to reinvigorated political participation, particularly among young people and newer political parties, with a positive impact in the Asia-Pacific region.
“In Thailand, young voters mobilised ahead of national elections that were ultimately more competitive than past votes and contributed to Thailand’s status improvement from Not Free to Partly Free. Although the reformist Move Forward Party, which won a plurality of votes, was blocked from forming a government, the results compelled the military-backed establishment to allow another opposition party [Pheu Thai] to lead the new ruling coalition,” its report said.
Freedom House, founded in October 1941, is a non-profit organisation based in Washington DC, and it is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, political freedom, and human rights.
Freedom in the World 2024 evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories in 2023. Each country or territory is assigned between 0 and 4 points on a series of 25 indicators, for an aggregate score of up to 100. The indicators are grouped into the categories of political rights (0–40) and civil liberties (0–60), whose totals are weighted equally to determine whether the country or territory has an overall status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free.
The methodology, which is derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographic location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.
“Freedom in the World assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors, including insurgents and other armed groups,” the report said.
According to Freedom in the World data, 35 countries currently earn the worst possible scores on the indicators for free and fair executive and legislative elections. This tally is up from 21 countries in 2005, when the global decline in freedom began.
“Over the last 18 years, countries have followed two main pathways to such abysmal scores: rigged elections and military coups. Both have deprived people of an elected government, one of the cornerstones of democracy,” the report said.
