Reflecting on 2023: Our Journey Toward a Freer World

As 2023 draws to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on our journey this year, the challenges we face, and the hope that drives us forward into 2024.

First, I offer my profound thanks to all of you for continuing to engage with and support Freedom House in our efforts to inform the world about threats to freedom, mobilize global action, and support democracy’s defenders. This fight belongs to all of us, as it will belong to our children and grandchildren. Please consider making a donation before the end of the year—Freedom House cannot do its important work without your support.

Freedom in the World, our flagship annual report on the state of democracy in 210 countries and territories, turned 50 this year. We are proud of its growing impact on policy makers, business leaders, and media, but the celebration has been bittersweet, given the report’s own findings that political rights and civil liberties have been declining globally for 17 consecutive years; our Freedom on the Net report has tracked a corresponding 13-year decline in human rights online. While the world is undeniably freer than it was when we published the first edition of Freedom in the World in 1973, billions of people today live under repression—unable to safely speak their minds, express their identity, peacefully protest their government’s policies, or exercise many of the other fundamental rights that those of us living in democracies too often take for granted.

Against this backdrop of escalating authoritarian aggression—as well as backsliding in democracies like the United States, India, Hungary, and Israel—Freedom House remains undaunted in our efforts to create a world where all people can live freely. In more than 90 countries, our international programs team assisted more than 15,000 embattled human rights defenders, independent journalists, and democracy advocates so they can continue their vital work in the face of authoritarian repression. Our policy and advocacy team pushed governments to take action to support democracy and its defenders and to counter authoritarian threats. For example:

• Since the Russian military’s  full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Freedom House has helped hundreds of human rights defenders fleeing Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus to resettle in European Union countries. We also continue to support human rights defenders within Russia and Belarus who are isolated from the global rights community and at risk of harsh crackdowns on dissent and free expression, with almost certain jail time—or worse—for protesting the war.
• Freedom House is working to protect at-risk human rights defenders from transnational repression—when authoritarian regimes reach beyond their own borders to harass, surveil, and even attack dissidents and journalists living in exile. Our programs help human rights defenders hone skills and access resources to protect themselves, and provide emergency assistance to those targeted, undoubtedly saving lives.
• We are immensely proud to have launched Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners, honoring the late Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, a staunch defender of human rights and democracy. This initiative is Freedom House’s flagship effort to secure the release of political prisoners worldwide and to provide direct support to these courageous individuals and their families. It also raises awareness about the plight of detained human rights defenders, such as journalist Tsi Conrad, sentenced to 15 years in Cameroon for filming a protest, and Saudi student and mother of two Salma al-Shehab, given a 27-year sentence for supporting women’s rights and advocating for the release of activists like Loujain al-Hathloul. 

Since 1941, Freedom House has ardently supported democracy’s bravest defenders across the globe. We will continue to do so in our 83rd year. Between ongoing resistance to the illegal invasion of Ukraine, historic levels of violence in Israel and Gaza, and major elections in more than 30 countries, including the United States, 2024 will be a critical year for democracy.

Despite escalating attacks on global freedom, the bravery, determination, and resilience of human rights defenders like Tsi, Salma, and the people of Ukraine, Myanmar, and Iran give me great hope—as does the trajectory of democracy traced by Freedom in the World these past 50 years. While authoritarians remain extremely dangerous and determined, history tells us that they are not unbeatable.

Join us in this cause by making a donation to support Freedom House. The courageous people on the front lines of the fight for freedom need your help if they are to survive and overcome authoritarian forces that pose a danger to us all. Your support ensures that Freedom House is able to inform the world about threats to freedom, mobilize global action, and provide critical support to the people defending democracy and human rights around the world. It means more safe houses, more security training, and more emergency aid for the people who need it most.

Many thanks for all you do to support civic engagement, democratic institutions, and fundamental rights in our own communities and around the world. I wish you a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to finding out what we can achieve together in the year ahead. 

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