2024 Year in Review
In what was a consequential year for freedom and democracy around the globe, Freedom House provided millions of dollars of support to human rights defenders in 132 countries, championed free and independent media, monitored elections worldwide, and published groundbreaking research.
Supporting Democracy Advocates and Human Rights Defenders
It was a consequential year for Freedom House’s work to free political prisoners around the world, much of which took place behind closed doors.
We actively supported prisoners’ families and joined them in their tireless advocacy on behalf of their loved ones. We facilitated trainings for lawyers and advocates, empowering them to fight for their client’s freedom. And we met constantly with policymakers and international officials to spotlight prisoner cases and assemble coalitions that can negotiate their release.
These efforts are often successful. In August, after months of advocacy with our coalition partners, we celebrated the release of several high-profile political prisoners from Russia and Belarus—including Freedom Award winner Vladimir Kara-Murza, and journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva. Inspired by the words of our trustee Felix Maradiaga—a tireless political activist and former political prisoner—we awarded the annual Mark Palmer Prize to the 350 government officials in the US who secured the release and facilitated the safe resettlement of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners last year. We reunited many of these officials with those they helped free at a special Mark Palmer Prize reception in September.
More work remains to ensure the freedom of all those who are still unjustly imprisoned around the world. Our team continues tracking, supporting, and advocating on behalf of those who put their freedom on the line to stand against authoritarian control.
Reflecting on 2024: A Challenging Year for Democracy and Freedom
With roughly half the world’s population voting in elections in 2024, we knew it would be a consequential year for democracy and freedom. Freedom House interim President Nicole Bibbins Sedaca shares thoughts on democratic developments and Freedom House’s work in 2024.
Informing the World About Threats to Freedom
Roughly half of the world’s population had the opportunity to vote in a national or local election in 2024, making it a hugely consequential year for democracy worldwide. In the end, the results were a mixed bag. In some countries, like South Africa and the United Kingdom, voters drove surprising change that forced incumbents out of power. In countries like Russia and Venezuela, autocrats used elections to affirm and consolidate their power, hijacking the ballot box as a tool of repression.
Through it all, our Election Watch team offered expert analysis on the impact of disinformation, internet shutdowns, censorship, and other digital interference for dozens of elections worldwide, including the United States. In the lead up to the historic US election, Freedom House experts provided measured, fact-based, nonpartisan analysis and context related to the criminal conviction of Donald Trump, and how holding heads of states accountable is not uncommon in democracies around the world.
In the wake of two assassination attempts against Trump and rising harassment and threats against election officials across the nation, the Journal of Democracy published an important essay on preventing political violence co-written by Interim President Nicole Bibbins Sedaca and Freedom House Trustee Rachel Kleinfeld. And we co-hosted a bipartisan event with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute that focused on actions leaders can take to counter false and misleading information that threatens electoral processes.
Mobilizing Policymakers, Advocates, and Leaders to Act
In 2024, Freedom House’s advocacy team had more engagements with government representatives from the United States and around the world than in any previous year for which we have records.
We met with representatives from at least 28 countries, as well as the Organization of American States, European Union, and United Nations. In the US, we responded to more than 150 requests from representatives working in Congress or the executive branch, and we proactively reached out more than 100 times to US government representatives to share important developments, organize events, exchange information, develop and strengthen relationships, and brief key policymakers on the latest report findings and policy recommendations.
This includes intense advocacy on behalf of the people of Ukraine, who continue to endure the Russian military’s egregious and illegal full-scale invasion. Freedom House reiterated that the future of European—and global—democracy and security is linked to the outcome of this war, which Ukraine must win on its terms. This was the top policy recommendation for both our Freedom in the World and Nations in Transit reports in 2024.
Further, Freedom House and our regional partners released a report that exposed Belarus’s complicity in a Russian government plan to abduct Ukrainian children from occupied territories, indoctrinate them with anti-Ukraine propaganda, and force them into military training. We have petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate these extraordinary crimes and to hold those responsible to account—including Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Belarus’s fraudulent president.
2024 Reports
Addressing Transnational Repression on Campuses in the United States
International students, visiting scholars, and faculty in the United States are being targeted by foreign governments and their agents. Learn more by reading our 2024 report.
Freedom in the World 2024
Flawed elections and armed conflict contributed to the 18th year of democratic decline. But by drawing strength from diversity, protecting dissent, and building international coalitions to support their own norms and values, democratic forces can still reverse the long decline in global freedom.
Nations in Transit 2024
Nations in Transit 2024: A Region Reordered by Autocracy and Democracy analyzes the state of democracy in the 29-country region stretching from Central Europe to Central Asia, a region increasingly defined by the widening gulf between those nations committed to a liberal, democratic order and those that violently reject it.
No Way In or Out: Authoritarian Controls on the Freedom of Movement.
Authoritarian governments around the world are restricting freedom of movement in retribution for political activism and dissent, subjecting people to a variety of repressive tactics, including travel bans, revocation of citizenship, confiscation of passports.
Freedom on the Net 2024
Around the world, voters have been forced to make major decisions about their future while navigating a censored, distorted, and unreliable information space.
How the Belarusian Regime is Erasing Ukrainian Children's Identity through Displacement, Re‑education, and Militarization
This special report details how the Belarusian regime displaces, indoctrinates, reeducates, and militarizes Ukrainian children in the service of the broader Russian state policy of eradicating Ukrainian national and cultural identity.
Our Favorite Blogs From 2024
