Cape Verde is Sub-Saharan African state with most freedom for 4th year running – report

NEW YORK August 6, 2007 - Cape Verde is the African country south of the Sahara with the highest levels of liberties and Sao Tome and Principe is also among one of the highest ranked states, American NGO Freedom House says in its annual survey of global liberties.

The two Lusophone island states are the only members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to merit the status of “free” in the survey made of 48 countries in “World Freedom in 2007”, published earlier this month by the American nonprofit organization.

Cape Verde scores maximum points in the categories of “political rights” and “civil liberties”, lying higher up the ranking than Ghana, Mauritius, Benin and Botswana. Cape Verde is also in the group of states with the highest levels of media independence, according to Freedom House.

Often referred to as the “fortunate islands”, Cape Verde has topped the US NGO’s freedom survey since 2004 and been in top spot for 16 years in the category of political rights.

The latest Freedom House report comes at a critical moment for Cape Verde’s foreign policy, with the islands’ membership process of the World Trade Organization entering its final stages and the expected presentation to the European Commission in November of a special partnership accord for Cape Verde.

A member of the African Union and the West African ECOWAS bloc, Cape Verde has sought a special relationship with the EU for many years and hopes to achieve this status during Portugal’s presidency of the 27-state bloc, which ends at the end of the year.

The annual Freedom House global report on liberty has been published for over 30 years and is considered as a key indicator on the spread of political and economic freedoms around the world.

A country is considered “free” by the US organization when there is “a widespread framework for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life and freedom of the press.”

Last year, according to the survey, “Sub-Saharan Africa suffered more reverses than gains after several years of progress, in some cases impressive, towards democracy.”

Nevertheless, in recent decades “increases of freedom in Africa were significant, and continue today - although these are less far-reaching than in other regions of the world.”

Among countries where the situation has worsened most in the past year are Zimbabwe and the Congo Republic.

Guinea-Bissau is also among the states that have reversed the positive trend for more freedoms, lying mid-table in 2007 among “partially free” countries that comprise nearly half the total in the study.

Despite falling several places in recent years due to political instability, Sao Tome stays in the group of states labeled as “free”, lying in 8th place ahead of South Africa.

Sao Tome is evaluated favorably by Freedom House in all categories of political and economic liberty.

Among the other member states of the CPLP, Mozambique is the third-highest ranked by Freedom House, maintaining the status of “partially free” that it has had since the beginning of the 1990s.

Angola is the only Portuguese-speaking state to be included among the “non-free” group of nations, despite being the country in this group that is closest to climbing to the next category.

Source: macauhub.com

From José Figueiredo Ramos:

Cape Verde and the Freedom House Country Report of 2007

"On the A Semana Online, of July 31st, an article with a suggestive title gives prominence to Cape Verde in the context of the Sub Sahara Africa, but in my opinion that this classification of Cape Verde as the most free country in Sub Sahara Africa, according to the criteria of the Freedom House on country reports in 2007, does not lend any advantage to Cape Verde for the following reasons:

The criteria defined in the report of the Freedom House are the following:
PR- Political Rights with the maximum punctuation of 1;
CL: Civil Liberties also with “1” as the higher punctuation.
The other criteria are:
Status: F - Free; PF-Partly Free; NF-Not Free and
The Sub-Categories:
A: Electoral Process;
B: Political Pluralism and Participation;
C: Functioning of Government;
D: Freedom of Expression and Belief;
E: Association Organizational Rights;
F: Rule of Law;
G: Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights.

We see from the following table, (a sample extracted from the Freedom House on line 2007 country report.)

Country PR CL Status A B C D E F G
Cabo Verde 1 1 F 12 15 10 15 11 14 13
Franca 1 1 F 12 15 11 15 12 14 15
Portugal 1 1 F 12 16 12 16 12 15 14
E U A 1 1 F 11 16 11 16 10 14 15
Sweden 1 1 F 12 16 12 16 12 16 16
Africa do Sul 1 2 F 12 14 9 15 12 12 12
Senegal 2 3 F 11 13 9 15 10 9 9
Guinea 6 5 NF 2 5 2 8 5 4 6

1. From this sample, it can be seen that the situation of Cape Verde need not be compared only with the countries of Sub-Sahara Africa, but it is reasonably comparable with all the countries of the world, recognized as “bastions of freedom”, having a PR Political Rights at maximum, with a CL (Civil Liberties) at maximum, and with classification F of Free, (Free Country).

2. Even in relation to the subcategories of personal and individual autonomy that normally increases as a function of the training of the individual, Cape Verde at 13 is near to Portugal with 14, and not to far from the highest punctuation of 16 of Sweden.

3. Even being a developing country, the category C (functioning of the government has punctuation 10 that it is only one point below the United States with 11 and with the best punctuation of 12.

4. As can be seen the punctuation of three of the countries of Sub Sahara Africa presented here, two with the best punctuation in this group and one with one of the worst, leads me to reaffirm that the comparison of Cape Verde only with the countries of the Sub-Sahara Africa favors does not favor Cape Verde in the least. It can well be compared, according to the parameters of the Freedom House, with the best in the list.

5. Having said this, I feel no pride in the fact that the African countries in general, are in a dire situation as the Freedom House report shows. It would be my wish that the whole continent, indeed the whole world, would have the greatest of punctuation according the criteria adopted by the Freedom House.

6. On the other hand, I hope that the information contained in the report serves as stimuli for a continuous progress in Cape Verde and when other detail and more specific fact findings are done, it continues to be found as a nation of respect for the law, and of continuous growth and development for all of its people."

J Figueiredo Ramos

Cape-verde is not only the most free country in sub-saharian africa, It is the most free country in all Africa. It is also better ranked than countries that are joining the European-Union (the most free bloc in the world). Cape-verde is ahead of Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, croatia... and ranks at the same level than portugal, france, uk or usa...