Ukraine ranks 118th position in Human Freedom Index, rising by 16 points

Ukraine ranks 118th position out of 162, rising by 16 points in the Human Freedom Index, but it remains the country with a lowest level of freedom (the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe (Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine), South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa), as to Ukrinform news agency. The report is co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Ukraine is placed between United Arab Emirates (117th) and Togo (119th). The countries with the lowest level of freedom are the countries of the Middle East and North Africa and the Eastern Europe (Moldova and Ukraine, Russia, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The countries with the highest level are North America (USA and Canada) and Western and North Europe, as to the authors of this report. The jurisdictions that took the top 10 places, in order, were New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada. The worst situation is observed in Livia 9158), Iraq (159), Yemen (160), Venezuala (161) and Syria (162). Countries in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantly higher average per capita income ($39,249) than those in other quartiles; the average per capita income in the least-free quartile is $12,026. The HFI also finds a strong relationship between human freedom and democracy. Hong Kong is an outlier in this regard. As to the authors of this report, “an old danger is reviving—dictatorial regimes that promote repression outside their borders and strive to impose their model of despotism internationally. Since the rise of free peoples, the menace of authoritarian imperialism has never quite disappeared, but it has not been seen on such a concerted basis since the fall of the Soviet Union. (…) A new version of Russia’s “great-game” imperialism has charged forth over the past decade or so, roughly the second half of Vladimir Putin’s time in power. The regime has used military displays and threats against its neighbors. It has resorted to outright force to attack Georgia and Ukraine and to support Bashar Hafez al-Assad’s murderous regime in Syria. Through dirty tech-tricks, it has attempted to undermine democracy and freedom in dozens of nations, including the United States”. This fourth annual index uses 79 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas: rule of Law, security and safety, movement, religion, association, assembly, and civil society , expression and information, identity and relationships, size of government, legal system and property rights , access to sound money, freedom to trade Internationally, regulation of credit, labor and business. The level of freedom is evaluated on scale of 0 to 10.