Freedom House: Situation in Azerbaijan Continues to Deteriorate

The human rights organization Freedom House has published an annual report "Nations in Transit 2015", which analyzes the situation in 29 countries in various regions - from Central Europe to Central Asia, the Voice of America said.

Freedom House assesses the situation in each country, based on seven key indicators (the conditions of the electoral process, the position of civil society, the degree of independence of the media, the level of corruption, the quality control, etc.). The estimation is made on the seven-point scale, where 7 is the worst score.

According to the findings in the report, the rating of Estonia was 1.96 points, Latvia - 2.07, Lithuania - 2.36, Georgia - 4.64 (little progress in the field of local self-government), Ukraine - 4.75 (there have been improvements in four areas ) Moldova - 4.86, Armenia - 5.36, Kyrgyzstan - 5.93 (worsened the situation with civil society), Tajikistan - 6.39 (regression in two areas), Russia - 6.46 (negative developments occurred in four areas), Kazakhstan - 6.61, Belarus - 6.71, Azerbaijan - 6.75 (deterioration in the situation of civil society and the judiciary), Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - 6.93 points each.

As the report notes, authoritarian leaders paying lip service to democratic reforms, have systematized their repressive tactics and for the most part refused to conduct an inclusive policy. -02D-