Five Developments from 2024 That Give Us Hope for Democracy in 2025

As we predicted a year ago, 2024 was indeed a pivotal year for freedom worldwide. Over the last 12 months, we’ve documented the steady erosion of political and internet freedom; witnessed the horrific conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Myanmar; and sounded the alarm over the spread of antidemocratic trends worldwide. While it is easy to be disheartened by these developments, we can take heart from inspiring examples of resilience and sacrifice which lead us to believe that the cause of freedom will ultimately prevail.

Around the world, people stood tall in the face of violence and repression. Voters let their will be known. And people developed new strategies to confront new challenges. Here are five developments that give us hope for 2025:

1. Diplomacy Secured the Release of Political Prisoners

The contrast between democracy and autocracy was on full display in August, as the United States and its allies secured the release of 16 political prisoners and foreign hostages held by Russia and Belarus in exchange for known criminals, spies, and assassins. Among those released were Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, and human rights activist Oleg Orlov, all of whom can now continue their vital work from outside the Kremlin’s cells—including by advocating for those who remain unjustly imprisoned. The deeply moving scenes of these brave individuals reuniting with their loved ones reaffirmed the positive impact of unrelenting advocacy. In September, the United States was also able to secure the humanitarian release of 135 political prisoners in Nicaragua who were unjustly detained for exercising their freedoms of expression, religion, assembly, or association. While they now face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives in a new country, we find hope in their freedom.

The August exchange and the negotiation with Nicaragua also served as testaments to the value of strong alliances. Without concerted diplomatic collaboration between the governments of Germany, the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, and Turkey, some of the courageous individuals held by Russia and Belarus may well have perished behind bars. Likewise, without extraordinary collaboration between the United States and Guatemala, Nicaragua’s political prisoners may have suffered for much longer. That they walk free in 2025 is a needed reminder of both what is possible and what is at stake for political prisoners around the world.

2. Mass Mobilizations Shifted Countries’ Democratic Trajectory

In Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Senegal, people united to demand positive change and set a more democratic trajectory for their countries.

Massive student-led protests that began in July, prompted by opposition to a government jobs quota system, ultimately toppled Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime in Bangladesh by August. But police and military forces killed hundreds if not thousands of protesters during the demonstrations, handing new interim leader Muhammad Yunus the heavy task of ensuring accountability for these tragedies while rebuilding democratic institutions and securing a more inclusive, pluralist future for his fellow Bangladeshis.

In Guatemala, 2024 began with the ruling party and the attorney general working to prevent the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo as president. Arévalo, who ran as an outsider aiming to counter deep-rooted interests, decisively won the August 2023 runoff election on an anticorruption platform. Arévalo’s January 2024 inauguration was made possible by the massive and peaceful mobilization of Guatemala’s Indigenous community and civil society organizations. Pressure from the international community helped, generating enough outcry at home and attention abroad to ensure Arévalo’s presidency.

In Senegal, incumbent President Macky Sall attempted to delay the February presidential election weeks before it was due. If successful, Sall would have clung to power until the end of 2024 and likely longer—but mass protests and public pressure caused Senegal’s Constitutional Council to overturn the postponement and set the election for March. Opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won, and the candidate put forward by Sall’s party peacefully conceded.

Yunus, Arévalo, and Faye all have enormous responsibilities, and time will tell if they can address the challenges ahead. But in each case, the same thing was demonstrated: The power they borrow ultimately belongs to the people.

3. The Will of the People Persisted

Several elections in 2024 were marred by irregularities as incumbents sought to manipulate the electoral or information environment ahead of balloting. Freedom House will continue to monitor and call out this deeply troubling trend in 2025. But we should also celebrate the countries where elections occurred freely and fairly, especially amid polarized politics or other contentious circumstances.

Some 22 out of 27 elections in countries rated Free in Freedom in the World 2024 and held within the first 10 months of the year occurred without significant manipulation. In Botswana, the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change won in a historic landslide, displacing a Botswana Democratic Party that had ruled since independence in 1966. In neighboring South Africa, the African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid, as voters grew frustrated with the status quo. Incumbent parties also lost in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, illustrating the people’s power to check their leaders and change course.

Meanwhile, Moldova and Taiwan held successful elections despite a barrage of authoritarian influence campaigns. Taiwanese civil society took innovative action to subvert Beijing’s propaganda and ensure voters could cast ballots freely and fairly. And in Moldova, pro-Europe incumbent President Maia Sandu eked out a win to maintain her country’s democratic trajectory, even amid allegations of Russian interference.

4. Governments Made Progress in Protecting Human Rights Online

Freedom on the Net 2024: The Struggle for Trust Online recorded the 14th consecutive year of decline in online freedom, making efforts to defend freedom of expression, access to information, and digital privacy even more vital. But regulators in several regions made real strides in managing the internet and broader digital technology to better protect people’s rights. 

This year’s report noted how regulatory interventions in South Africa, Taiwan, and the European Union (EU) helped voters sift through false and misleading information during major elections, while protecting their ability to express themselves freely online. South Africa’s election commission and local civil society partnered to increase transparency about political advertisements and raise public awareness about false claims. Taiwan’s civil society established a multifaceted fact-checking approach that stands as a global model, and policymakers passed a law allowing candidates to report misleading deepfakes of themselves to social media companies, dependent on law enforcement identifying that content as generated via artificial intelligence. The EU’s landmark Digital Services Act emphasized platform responsibility, risk mitigation, and data transparency. These instrumental efforts, even if imperfect, show that a balance between protecting online freedom and addressing false and misleading information can be struck.

And while more must be done to protect human rights defenders, journalists, and ordinary people, some policymakers have sought to rein in the global market for intrusive surveillance technology. In July, the US Commerce Department proposed new rules to set controls on facial-recognition technology and place restrictions on exports to certain foreign governments and their proxies with malign intentions. Several democratic governments also signed onto a joint statement on spyware, signaling their commitment to limit its domestic use and strengthen collaboration with civil society and the private sector.

5. The Indomitable Human Spirit

Above all, what gives us hope in 2025 is the unconquerable human spirit and its unyielding desire for freedom. Around the world, people made great sacrifices to demand respect for their basic rights.

In Venezuela, opposition activists worked to field a candidate, backed by a unified front, to run against strongman Nicolás Maduro in the July presidential election. Maduro was declared the winner by a partisan electoral council, even though opposition vote tallies showed their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, well ahead. Venezuelans showed their bravery by protesting Maduro’s sham victory, while authorities responded with arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, including of children. In Georgia, people turned out in large numbers to protest their government’s resurrected “foreign agents” law, voice disapproval over the suspension of EU membership talks, and express anger over claims of fraud during the October parliamentary polls. In China, which is ruled by one of the world’s most repressive regimes, we documented over 7,800 acts of protest since 2022. And in Belarus, whose regime has shuttered independent media, organizations like Nasha Niva persist, reporting from exile. The list of courageous examples goes on.

The world’s citizens have endured incredible hardship and harassment to voice their opinions, staking a claim in the ownership of their societies and pushing back against repressive rulers despite the risks. We owe it to those people to advocate for them and stand beside them. After all, this is the kind of perseverance, determination, and defiance that gives us—and hopefully you—inspiration as we dive undeterred into 2025.