NEWLY ISSUED

Annual Survey of Independent Nations Country Political Data Part 1: Afghanistan-Luxembourg more

Current Concerns

 

Caribbean and Central America: The new Hurricane season

Cleanup  and reconstruction after oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Korean Peninsula war threats

The delay in forming a government in Iraq

Iran’s nuclear power stance

Eurozone and financial safety net

Around the globe, civil liberties and political rights declined in 2009. Any survey of the progress of liberty remains skewed. Militants around the world continue to resort to violent action against governments and fellow human beings for reasons ranging from acceptable to despicable, from reaching for self-determination, fighting repression to ethnic, religious, and social goals, to criminal endeavors. Even governments in the free world fighting militants are turning to measures, especially against Arabs and Muslims, which are at best applied arbitrarily, and often clash with democratic values and international law. In some states of the not-so-free world, application of these measures is even worse. There is another reason for uneven progress: Governance or better the lack of it or its defects. Nearly all of the countries lacking in civil liberties and political rights have expertly written constitutions guaranteeing rights but for cultural and historical reasons lag behind in fully understanding democratic rights. In countries ruled by single individuals or parties or by cliques, the overriding goal is to keep and stay in power, often with the aim of enriching themselves.

 For four years running, global declines in freedom outweighed gains in 2009 and the number of countries designated shown as Free in 2009 stands at 89, representing 46 percent of the world’s 194 countries and 46 percent of the world population. In a year marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists, declines for freedom were registered in 40 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union, representing 20 percent of the world’s total polities, reports Freedom House of Washington in its annual survey ...

***

 Just as last year, the poor state of governance in some African countries is underlined by the announcement of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation of London on 13 June that the annual leadership award will not be handed out this year although the overall standard of governance in African countries is improving. The chairman of the Foundation said “Whether there is a winner or not, the purpose of the Foundation is to challenge those in Africa and across the world to debate what constitutes excellence in leadership," adding that the standards set for the Prize winner are high, and the number of potential candidates each year is small. So it is likely that there will be years when no Prize is awarded. In the current year, no new candidates emerged." Looking toward the future, leadership fellowships will be launched to identify and prepare the next generation of outstanding African leaders at multilateral institutions.

***

 The United States Congress lost its longest serving member Robert C. Byrd, 92, a member of the Democratic Party of the mountain state of West Virginia. He served in the House of Representatives from 1952 until 1958 when he was elected to the US Senate in which he served until his death on 28 June in a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. He started out with strong conservative and anti-civil rights views and later became a supporter of some progressive legislation without fully embracing liberal agendas. His loss will not change the political balance since the Democratic state governor will appoint a Democratic replacement.

***

 During a sitting of Pakistan's Supreme Court on 2 June, one of the judges observed that “the will of the people was above the Constitution and upholding and protecting that will was the ultimate objective of every organ and functionary of the state,” reports Dawn.

***