It is good to remember that much of the world is severely unfree. Foreign Policy has a good feature on a few of the least free places on earth. Many Americans, I suspect, could not locate many of these places on the map. It is too bad because some of them are within the US orbit of influence. Americans should want our country to be a beacon of light into the dark places of the world. But, in order to be that beacon, we must know where the darkness reigns.
One disputed territory that shockingly few people know about is Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan occupation:
Western Sahara is the subject of a decades-long dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed rebel group, the Polisario Front. Morocco controls local elections, severely restricts freedom of assembly, and denies nomadic Saharans, or Sahrawis, their right to form independent political or nongovernmental organizations. Sahrawi activists face harassment, arbitrary detention, and torture. Moroccan authorities regularly use force when quelling demonstrations and riots in Sahrawi villages.
via The Least Free Places on Earth | Foreign Policy.
The source data is available from Freedom House at this link.
Filed under: policy , civil rights, democracy, foreign policy
