The non-governmental organization Freedom House, which conducts research on the current state of political rights and civil liberties, published its annual report of 2013, according to which Nagorno Karabakh improved its rating, moving from “not free” country to “partly free.”
This change, according to the organization’s report, is mainly stipulated by the competitive presidential elections held in the NKR in July 2012, which were the fifth in succession.
Freedom House assesses the policy of the authorities of the world’s states per two criteria: political rights and civil liberties. Each of these dimensions is assessed on a scale from 1 (maximum) to 7 (minimum). According to both criteria, the Nagorno-KarabakhRepublic got “5.”
“Nagorno-Karabakh’s political rights rating improved from 6 to 5, and its status improved from Not Free to Partly Free, due to the participation of a genuine opposition in the July presidential election,” the report reads.
According to the report, “Armenia’s political rights rating improved due to the absence of postelection violence following parliamentary balloting in May and the entry of an authentic opposition party into the legislature.”
