According to the report of the US organisation monitoring progress of political rights and civil freedoms in the world, Croatia was rated 2 for political rights and 2 for civil liberties (1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating).
The Washington-based organisation on Monday issued only the overall assessment of the state of democracy in the world, while concrete reports for each country will be released in the summer of 2005.
In 1993, Croatia was assessed as partly free country but since 2001 the country had been assessed as free.
According to the report, 89 countries are free. Their 2.8 billion inhabitants (44 percent of the world's population) enjoy a broad range of rights. Fifty-four countries representing 1.2 billion people (19 percent) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, or, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife are often the norm. The survey finds that 49 countries are not free. The 2.4 billion inhabitants (37 percent) of these countries, three-fifths of whom live in China, are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties.
Slovenia achieved the highest possible survey rating: 1 for political rights and 1 for civil liberties, while Romania and Serbia and Montenegro's rating is 2.5
Even though Bosnia and Herzegovina's score improved in the wake of the country's first postwar elections organized entirely by Bosnian institutions, the country was rated as partly free (3.5).