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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom House | 3/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T10:31:05.082966+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Academic commentary === According to one study, Freedom House's rankings "overemphasize the more formal aspects of democracy while failing to capture the informal but real power relations and pathways of influence ... and frequently lead to de facto deviations from democracy." States can therefore "look formally liberal-democratic but might be rather illiberal in their actual workings" Academic Wenfang Tang observes that Freedom House reports use criteria developed by Western elites. A study comparing Freedom House rankings with the World Values Survey data measuring respondent's perceptions of freedom in their countries found no statistically significant correlation between the Freedom House measures of freedom and subjective feelings of freedom. According to Tang, Freedom House rankings exaggerate the differences between liberal and non-liberal countries, observing for example that Freedom House scores China near zero, but Chinese survey respondents report a higher level of freedom than do survey respondents in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Tang also observes that Freedom House's rating of China as a near zero for human rights conflicts with the seventh wave (2017-2022) World Values survey data indicating that 72% of Chinese are satisfied with the state of human rights in their country.
=== Cuban, Sudanese, and Chinese criticism === In May 2001, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations heard arguments for and against Freedom House. Representatives of Cuba said that the organization is a U.S. foreign policy instrument linked to the CIA and "submitted proof of the politically motivated, interventionist activities the NGO (Freedom House) carried out against their Government". They also claimed a lack of criticism of U.S. human rights violations in the annual reports. Cuba also stated that these violations are well documented by other reports, such as those of Human Rights Watch. Other countries such as China and Sudan also gave criticism. The Russian representative inquired "why this organization, an NGO which defended human rights, was against the creation of the International Criminal Court?" The U.S. representative stated that alleged links between Freedom House and the CIA were "simply not true". The representative said he agreed that the NGO receives funds from the United States Government, but said this is disclosed in its reports. The representative said the funds were from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was not a branch of the CIA. The representative said his country had a law prohibiting the government from engaging in the activities of organizations seeking to change public policy, such as Freedom House. The representative said his country was not immune from criticism from Freedom House, which he said was well documented. The U.S. representative further argued that Freedom House was a human rights organization which sought to represent those who did not have a voice. The representative said he would continue to support NGOs who criticized his government and those of others. In December 2019, Freedom House, together with four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations, was sanctioned by the Chinese government. In August 2020, then Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz, together with the heads of the same four groups and six U.S. Republican lawmakers, were also sanctioned, with the Chinese foreign ministry saying these individuals had "blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations". The leaders of the five organizations saw the sanctioning, whose details were unspecified, as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier sanctioning by the U.S. of 11 Hong Kong officials. The latter step had in turn been a reaction to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law at the end of June.
=== Russia === Russia, identified by Freedom House as "Not Free", called Freedom House biased and accused the group of serving U.S. interests. Sergei Markov, an MP from the ruling United Russia party, called Freedom House a "Russophobic" organization, commenting: "You can listen to everything they say, except when it comes to Russia ... There are many Russophobes there." Christopher Walker, director of studies at Freedom House, posited that Freedom House made its evaluations based on objective criteria explained on the organization's website, and denied that it had a pro-U.S. agenda, saying: "If you look closely at the 193 countries that we evaluate, you'll find that we criticize what are often considered strategic allies of the United States." UCLA political scientist Daniel Treisman has criticized Freedom House's assessment of Russia. Treisman cited that Freedom House ranks Russia's political rights on the same level as the United Arab Emirates, which is a federation of absolute monarchies with no element of democracy within the system. Freedom House also ranks Russia's civil liberties on the same scale as those of Yemen, where criticism of the president was illegal. Treisman contrasts Freedom House's ranking with the Polity IV scale used by academics, in which Russia has a much better score. In 2018, the Polity IV scale scored the United Arab Emirates at -8, Russia at +4, and the United States at +8. In May 2024, Russian authorities declared Freedom House an "undesirable organization".