U.S.-based liberty-and-democracy watchdog, Freedom House, warns that civil liberties came increasingly under threat in 2016 as authoritarian powers gained strength in many parts of the world and “populist and nationalist forces” rose in democratic states.

The group says in its Freedom in the World 2017 report that 67 countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties last year, almost twice as many as the 36 states that registered net improvements. The annual survey assessed 195 countries in total.

Of the 195 countries assessed, 87 (45 percent) were rated Free, 59 (30 percent) Partly Free, and 49 (25 percent) Not Free.

Tajikistan together with Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan was listed among countries rated as Not Free. 

The report says that in Tajikistan, “a referendum cleared the way for President Emomali Rahmon to run for an unlimited number of terms and lowered the age of eligibility for the presidency -- a move likely meant to allow Rahmon's son to succeed him.”

The authorities also in June sentenced two leaders of the banned Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) to life imprisonment while several others received lengthy prison terms, according to the report.

The report singles out Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as being among 11 countries in the "not free" group that have the worst aggregate scores for political rights and civil liberties.  Other states in the same worst-of-the-worst category include North Korea, Eritrea, and Syria.

Looking at Eurasia as a whole, Freedom House says that 2016 showed the region “divided between a more democratic-oriented fringe and a core of rigid autocracies.”

The report says that in many countries in Eurasia, including Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, governments “took steps to shore up their power amid economic and political uncertainty.”

In 2016, populist and nationalist political forces made astonishing gains in democratic states, while authoritarian powers engaged in brazen acts of aggression, and grave atrocities went unanswered in war zones across two continents, the report says.

The report argues that major democracies “are mired in anxiety and indecision after events such as Britain’s vote to leave the European Union” as well as “gains by xenophobic nationalist parties elsewhere in Europe, and the U.S. presidential victory of Donald Trump.”