Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy that has undergone democratic consolidation over the past two decades, including credible elections and transfers of power to opposition parties. Ongoing problems include discrimination against minority groups, economic challenges, and the threat of undue interference by the Chinese and Indian governments.

• The Election Commission of Bhutan continued its successful management of local government by-elections during the year, including in particularly remote areas of the country, building confidence in its overall capacity.
• After the administration of US President Donald Trump took office in January, US authorities began deporting dozens of Bhutanese refugees to Bhutan as part of a broader immigration crackdown. Most of them belonged to Nepali-speaking ethnic groups that had been forcibly expelled from Bhutan in the 1990s; they had legally resettled in the United States, and were deported by US officials on the grounds that they had since been convicted of crimes. The Bhutanese government sought to quickly detain and remove the deportees to Nepal, where they also faced detention, confinement in decades-old refugee camps, and the possibility of another deportation. Separately, a number of Nepali-speaking political prisoners who had been detained in the 1990s or early 2000s remained behind bars in Bhutan and allegedly faced harsh conditions.
• The Bhutanese government sought to improve relations with Beijing amid ongoing negotiations over the disputed border area, where Chinese authorities had constructed settlements and military outposts on internationally recognized Bhutanese territory over the past decade. Tibetan activists objected in March when Bhutan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs used the Chinese term “Xizang” to refer to Tibet, arguing that the term contributed to Beijing’s erasure of Tibet’s unique culture.

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For additional background information, see the reports from the 2024 and 2025 editions of Freedom in the World.