Expanding Freedom and Democracy
People hold a rally in memory of victims of the recent country-wide unrest triggered by fuel price increase in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 13, 2022. A banner reads: "People are not terrorists". REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev
![Polish voters gather for the ''March of a Million Hearts,” a pro-democratic rally in Warsaw that gathered up to 1 million participants on October 1, 2023. (Piotr Lapinski/NurPhoto via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/2024-03/NIT2024COVER_Poland.jpg)
Freedom House is founded on the core conviction that freedom flourishes in democratic nations where governments are accountable to their people.
![Nations in Transit](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2024-04/NIT%20reduced%20cover%20.png?h=75fa14aa&itok=EDNYo4_v)
The Human Cost of Democratic Decline
Nations in Transit 2024 found that democratic governance declined for the 20th consecutive year in the 29 countries stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia. This decades-long decline has had a real human cost—most gravely in Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh, as autocrats in Russia and Azerbaijan intensified violent aggression abroad in 2023. To protect the most vulnerable, governments within and outside the region should shore up democratic institutions.
Explore Nations in Transit 2024
![Polish voters gather for the ''March of a Million Hearts,” a pro-democratic rally in Warsaw that gathered up to 1 million participants on October 1, 2023. (Piotr Lapinski/NurPhoto via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2024-03/NIT2024COVER_Poland.jpg?h=8d715888&itok=GkfW8vF9)
Read the Report
Democratic governance in the Nations in Transit region declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2023, as the region becomes increasingly defined by the widening gulf between those nations committed to a liberal, democratic order and those that violently reject it. Explore Nations in Transit 2024: A Region Reordered by Autocracy and Democracy.
![Nations in Transit 2023](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-05/NITMAP_0.png?h=6240deeb&itok=sgp3-B5n)
Explore the Map
Check out our interactive map and learn more about the state of democracy in Nations in Transit's area of focus.
![President of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar visits flood-damaged areas near Kamnik, Slovenia after major flooding devastated the country. (Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/Sipa USA)](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2024-03/NIT2024_SloveniaFlood.jpg?h=d3ae8032&itok=FZ36AmD4)
Take the Quiz!
Test your knowledge of some of the key findings from our report by taking our quiz.
Upcoming Events
Forum on Leadership-Human Rights and the New Global Order
10:00AM – 8:00PM
Miami Conference on Global Democracy
2:00PM – 3:15PM
Freedom House 2024 Annual Awards
6:00PM – 10:00PM
![Explore the Map](/sites/default/files/2023-03/FIW23_StaticMap_Banner.png)
Tracking Democracy and Freedom Around the World
![Vladimir Kara-Murza is pictured with his child on his back](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-09/VKM.png?h=bca359de&itok=zcq2d5LO)
After Navalny’s Death, Efforts Must Accelerate to Free Kara-Murza
In response to the death of Russian democratic opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, who died in Russian custody while unjustly incarcerated, Freedom House joins partners in requesting the Biden Administration to accelerate efforts to free imprisoned Russian democracy advocate, Vladimir Kara-Murza.
News & Updates
![A child is loaded into a truck taking people fleeing from Joda on the Sudanese border](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2024-04/2WWP4NC.jpg?h=ac778ff2&itok=xPa0vfwl)
As Sudan’s Devastating War Enters a Second Year, the Global Response Falls Short
Perspectives
April 18, 2024
![Freedom House Default Card Image](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-09/SHARABLE-FH.png?h=5a472534&itok=1Sk4Mitr)
Ten years after his arbitrary arrest, NGOs call for Saudi human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khair to be released
Joint statement
April 15, 2024
Latest Research
![Visible and Invisible Bars](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2024-01/FreedomHouse%20Political%20Prisoners%20FINAL%20.jpg?h=f561d7d5&itok=d45MIysR)
Visible and Invisible Bars
Visible and Invisible Bars, a report from Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners, draws attention both to political imprisonment and its damaging impacts on prisoners and their families, and the consequences of civil death.
![Freedom on the Net 2023](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-09/FreedomHouse%20Ai%20Cover%20FINAL.jpg?h=98977a7f&itok=LXq5QdYG)
Freedom on the Net 2023
Advances in artificial intelligence are increasing the scale, speed, and efficiency of digital repression. The 2023 edition of Freedom on the Net is now live.
![China Dissent Monitor](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-05/CDM%20%285-17%29%20V2%20GW%202.png?h=a7d7d747&itok=A16z63Ad)
The China Dissent Monitor
Despite increasingly repressive rule under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), dissent in China occurs regularly and is geographically widespread. The China Dissent Monitor features quarterly updated interactive data on collective action in public spaces and cases of online dissent.
Our Issues
In the Media
![Freedom House 2023 End of Year Review](/sites/default/files/styles/308x182_fp_scale_crop_/public/2023-12/IMG_5187.png?h=a955cd85&itok=lo4XUXQH)
Mapping Freedom House's Impact in 2023
In 2023, Freedom House assisted more than 15,000 human rights activists, organizations, journalists, children and youth, and others at-risk more than 90 countries. Here's how we worked to expand and defend freedom across the world over the past year.