According to the annual report of the human rights organization Freedom House, Georgia in the Freedom in the World ranking fell by two points.
On a 100-point scale, Georgia has 61 points (24 points for political rights and 37 points for civil liberties), which is a slight decrease compared to last year (63 points).
As in previous years, Georgia is still among the «partially free» countries.
Freedom in the World examines the political rights of citizens and civil liberties in 195 countries and 15 territories. According to scores in the categories of political rights and civil liberties (on a scale of 1 to 7), each country or territory is assigned the status of “free”, “partially free” or “not free” country/territory. On this scale, 1 means the freest, and 7 — the least free.
Of the 210 countries assessed in the 2020 report, 84 were rated as “free,” 67 as “partially free,” and 59 as “not free.”
In the Freedom House study, occupied Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region fall into the category of “territories”. Abkhazia received 17 points in the category of political rights and 23 points in the category of civil liberties, and the category of “partially free” was assigned to Abkhazia.
Tskhinvali region belongs to the category of “not free” territories. It was given two points in the category of political rights and 8 points in the category of civil liberties.
“Regular and competitive elections are held in Georgia, and the path of democratic development in the country has shown signs of improvement during the period of the change of power in 2012-2013, but progress has been stopped in recent years. Oligarchic factors have an overwhelming influence on policymaking and political decision-making (in one area or another), and the rule of law is limited by political interests,” the report said last year. A review of developments in the country for this year is not yet available.