Rabat – Quantifying human freedoms, such as personal expression, religion, and assembly, Morocco stands at the 134 position globally in the 2021 Human Freedom Index (HFI) and ranks ninth in the MENA region, according to a report co-published by the Canadian Fraser Institute and the Cato Institute for American Research.
The kingdom ranks 146th out of 165 countries in terms of personal freedom and 102nd (6.69 points) for the economic freedom index.
In North African and the Middle Eastern countries, Israel came first in ranking (62nd place), followed by Jordan (94th), Lebanon (108th), Tunisia (116th place), Kuwait (121st), Qatar (128th), the UAE (131st), and Oman (133rd).
Meanwhile, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Venezuela, and Syria are at the bottom of the global ranking, occupying the 160th, 161st, 162nd, 163rd, 164th, 165th, respectively.
As for the African continent, Cape Verde tops the ranking with the 36th place worldwide, followed by Botswana (53rd), Seychelles (57th), Namibia (66th), and Ghana (70th).
Globally, Switzerland came in first place, followed by New Zealand and Denmark in second and third place respectively.
Estonia ranks fourth, Ireland (5), Finland and Canada (6), Australia (8), Sweden (9), and Luxembourg (10).
The report highlighted that 83% of the world’s population lives in jurisdictions that have experienced a decline in human freedom between 2008 and 2019. Conversely, only 17% of the global population lives in countries that have seen increases in freedom during the same time period.
“The gap in human freedom between the most-free and the least-free jurisdictions has widened since 2008, increasing by 6.6 percent when comparing the top and bottom quartile of nations in the HFI,” the report added.
The regions with the highest levels of freedom are North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe, and Oceania while the lowest levels are in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.
The report’s data shows that the biggest regressions in the world have been in the areas of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of association, assembly, and civil society.
