The human rights organization “Freedom House” has highly assessed Armenia’s achievements over the past two years in the field of democracy in its report on the improvement of democracy in post-Soviet countries. According to Armenpress, the well-known American human rights organization, in connection with the publication of its “Nations in Transit 2020” report, emphasized that Armenia has recorded the highest two-year indicator of democratic improvement in the history of the report.
The report is devoted to democratic developments in 29 post-Soviet Eurasian countries. It is noted that Armenia has made significant progress over the past two years in the areas of conducting elections and fighting corruption, but developments around the judicial system have given cause for concern to the report’s authors.
According to Freedom House’s assessment, public consensus around political change, the rule of law, and the fight against systemic corruption created the foundation for the velvet revolution in Armenia. This public demand is a historic opportunity for the development of democracy.
The report calls for special attention to be paid to countries in a transitional phase of their governance system, singling out Armenia and Ukraine, which have recorded high indicators of democratization over the past two years. The leaders of these countries today face the challenges of meeting citizens’ expectations without violating democratic standards, maintaining trust, and changing rotten systems.
Freedom House calls for broad programmatic support to be provided to Armenia in the direction of the rule of law and the strengthening of institutions, including reforms of the judicial and police systems. The programs of the United States and European countries that supported the velvet revolution should also include goals of maintaining public unity and eliminating political polarization, which will help successfully implement other reforms.
The report emphasizes that more leaders in the European and Eurasian region are already openly attacking democratic institutions and values. Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz calls on Western democracies not to ignore the anti-democratic processes taking place in their neighborhood, and on the United States to reassume its mission in the defense of democracy. Not ruling out a deterioration of the situation from the perspective of democratic development due to the “corona” virus pandemic, Abramowitz expresses hope that this trial will demonstrate the importance of transparent and accountable governance, creating a demand for new changes.
