The Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem), a Sweden-based political science research institute, published a civil liberty index, which ranked Georgia ninth in the world, third in the Eurasian continent, and first in Europe, based on 11-year improvement. The Index examines to what extent state authorities respect and protect the right to peaceful assembly.
Georgia earned 3.5 points on a four-point evaluation system in the ranking and is ahead of a number of NATO and European Union member states, two states of the Big Seven, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Latvia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, South Korea, Singapore and Turkey.
Georgia has improved its position by 49 places since 2012.
In 2012, Georgia was among the three most unfavorable countries in Europe with respect to civil liberties, together with Russia and Belarus.
Civil liberty is understood as liberal liberty, where liberty belongs to an individual. Civil liberty is the absence of violence on the part of state officials and the absence of restrictions on private liberties and political freedoms by the Government.
The 2023 Index showed that Georgia was ahead of many NATO and European Union member states and developed countries in the ranking of civil liberties, namely, Poland, Hungary, Israel, Singapore, Turkey and all neighboring countries.
V-Dem is a prominent global research project headquartered at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, focusing on democracy assessment and governance indicators.
The project is led by five principal investigators, 19 project managers, 33 regional managers, more than 134 coordinators and about 4,000 experts worldwide.
The organization is one of the research projects on which the World Bank’s Global Governance Indicators are based.
