Most Oppressive Regimes

Freedom House has done its annual list of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

The very sad thing is that fully one third of these 18 most oppressive regimes sit on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. To be fair to Kofi Anna he has proposed replacing this body with a reformed “Human Rights Council”, members being chosen based on their compliance with the “highest human rights standards.” Not before time.

The eight countries with the worst records are Burma, CUba, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan. Plus the territories of Chechnya and Tibet were also at the bottom.

Overall 46% of countries are found to be free, and 28% partly free.