Morocco has gone down in the ranking of the 2018 Freedom in the World report. The latter, conducted to assess each country's degree of political freedoms and civil liberties, has rated the Kingdom as a partially free nation. Morocco is rated as a partially free country by the 2018 Freedom in the World report released on Tuesday, 16th of January. The survey entitled «Democracy in Crisis» and which investigates the status of political rights and civil liberties in the world, shows that the Kingdom's ratings have deteriorated in the past year. Positioned 146th among 210 countries and provinces, Morocco fell down in the ranking compared to the report's previous edition when it was ranked 142nd. In its freedom status, the North African Kingdom scored 39 points out of 100. For the political rights and civil liberties indicators, Morocco had 5 points out of 7. The similar performance was scored in the Freedom Ratings category. In its explanation, the report conducted by the Freedom House, a U.S.-based 501 U.S. Government-funded non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights, indicated that «Morocco's civil liberties score declined from 4 to 5 and». According to the annual survey, the country «received a downward trend arrow due to harsh state responses to major demonstrations throughout the year». A global decline Although Morocco has obviously declined in the ranking, it was ranked second in North Africa, ahead of Tunisia which scored 70 points leading the other nations in the region. Meanwhile, Algeria was positioned 3rd (35), ahead of Egypt 4th (26) and Libya 5th and last. Globally, the ranking was topped by Finland, Norway and Sweden scoring 100 out of 100 points, following by Canada and the Netherlands 4th and Australia, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Uruguay 6th. In their conclusion, the authors of the report pointed out that «political rights and civil liberties around the world deteriorated to their lowest point in more than a decade in 2017». According to Freedom House the abovementioned period was «characterized by emboldened autocrats, beleaguered democracies, and the United States' withdrawal from its leadership role in the global struggle for human freedom».
