Washington, D.C. – Freedom House released its "Freedom in the World 2024" report on Thursday and ranked Tibet among the world's least free countries with zero (0) in political and civil liberties. The report said that "In Tibet, the CCP aggressively defends its monopoly on political power, and any expression of support for selfdetermination is severely punished. As a result, Tibet is one of the least free places in the world, with an aggregate score that is even lower than China’s."
Freedom House, an independent organisation dedicated to promoting freedom around the world, released its annual report, "Freedom in the World 2025: The Uphill Battle to Safeguard Rights" on February 27, 2025. Tibet has been ranked the least free country in the world, with zero (0) political and civil liberties in 2024,Tibet has been ranked as the least free countries since 2015. Last year, Tibet ranked as the least free region in the world with an overall score of -2 in political rights.
The “Freedom in the World 2024” report assessed 210 countries and territories worldwide. 83 countries and regions were classified as free, 56 as partially free and 56 as not free. Free categories include countries such as Sweden, Norway, the UK, France, Spain, Australia, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, etc., while partially free countries include India, Mexico and Thailand, and not-free countries include Tibet, Hong Kong, China, Russia, Kazakhstan and many African countries.
The report of Freedom House states, "Freedom declined around the world for the 19th consecutive year in 2024. People experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties in 60 countries, and secured improvements in only 34 countries. In settings where conditions worsened, key factors driving the degradation in rights and liberties included violence and the repression of political opponents during elections, ongoing armed conflicts, and the spread of authoritarian practices."
Freedom House listed 67 countries and territories designated as Not Free, Tibet was the among the worst aggregate scores for political rights and civil liberties. Tibet remained among Freedom in the World’s worst-scoring countries and territories since 2005.
The report states, "In Tibet, the CCP aggressively defends its monopoly on political power, and any expression of support for selfdetermination is severely punished. For decades, Beijing has encouraged the settlement of Han Chinese and forced hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tibetans into reeducation, resettlement, or employment programs that are rife with political indoctrination, effectively attempting to Sinicize the region and erase Tibetan identity. As a result, Tibet is one of the least free places in the world, with an aggregate score that is even lower than China’s. During 2023, approximately one million Tibetan children were separated from their families and put into state-run boarding schools where official versions of Han Chinese culture and language are forcibly inculcated."
"In Hong Kong, Tibet, and Western Sahara, the local populations could not exercise political self-determination, leaving them vulnerable to assaults on their civil liberties through the exercise of unchecked power," it added.
The Freedom House report declares, "People living in disputed territories without access to self-determination were especially vulnerable to abuses by authorities with no meaningful checks on their power. Beijing continued to clamp down on the few freedoms available to residents of Hong Kong and Tibet."
"China’s authoritarian regime is also working to undermine democracy abroad by interfering in elections. Taiwan’s January 2024 presidential election took place in the shadow of Beijing’s “three warfares” strategy toward the island, which included efforts to influence public opinion. In late 2023, media reports indicated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had convened high-level meetings on the need for effective but covert methods of influencing the Taiwanese election. During the campaign, the Chinese leadership issued messages, relied on disinformation, and used military exercises to frame the election for Taiwanese voters as a choice between war and peace, with the aim of deterring them from supporting political parties and candidates that take a harder line on cross-strait relations," the report mentioned.
Freedom House recommends to world leaders, "with each year of global decline in freedom, it has become more urgent for democracies to work together to halt and roll back the deterioration. The events of this period have demonstrated, again and again, that the harmful effects of authoritarian repression and misrule regularly spill across national borders. And just as tyranny fuels the spread of instability, armed conflict, terrorism, mass displacement, and corruption around the world, it is the protection of democratic rights and the rule of law that ultimately ensure freedom, security, and prosperity."
