Worlds most repressive regimes 2005
From IFEX weekly newsletter
Freedom House has released its annual survey of the world’s most repressive regimes, highlighting human rights conditions in 18 countries worldwide.
“The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies 2005″ provides detailed information on human rights abuses in Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Chechnya, Tibet, and Western Sahara are included as territories under Russian, Chinese, and Moroccan jurisdictions respectively.
The IFEX member points out that six of the countries - China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe - are members of the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) who work to undermine the body’s effectiveness as an international human rights watchdog.
“Rather than serving as the proper international forum for identifying and publicly censuring the world’s most egregious human rights violators, the CHR instead protects abusers, enabling them to sit in judgment of democratic states that honor and respect the rule of law,” says Freedom House.
Freedom House’s report has been submitted to the CHR in Geneva, where the body is holding its annual session this month.
The report is available here: Link
