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A new report from an international organization dedicated to tracking civic freedoms throughout the world has downgraded its rating for the United States, due in large part to policies enacted by the Trump administration.
The report, which was published on Monday, comes from a group called Civicus, which monitors “the state of civic freedoms — including freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly — across 198 countries and territories.”
The U.S. was previously rated as a “narrowed” society, in terms of civic freedoms. In its new report, Civicus now rates the U.S. as an “obstructed” society.
According to its website, an “obstructed” rating means that a country’s civic space is heavily contested. The next step down from obstructed is “repressed.”
Attributes of an obstructed society are mixed when it comes to civic behavior that is allowed or tolerated. Although citizens can organize and peacefully assemble, they are also vulnerable to brutality from law enforcement agencies, “including rubber bullets, tear gas and baton charges,” the organization states. The group notes that while there is “some space for non-state media and editorial independence” in an obstructed society, journalists “face the risk of physical attack and criminal defamation charges, which encourage self-censorship.”
Civicus noted a number of reasons for its downgrade of the U.S., including:
- The deployment of National Guard troops and immigration enforcement agencies to quell protests in cities across the country;
- Attacks on press freedom, with journalists facing legal repercussions and intimidation from political leaders;
- And crackdowns on students and academics with pro-Palestine views, including revocations of international students’ visas, arrests of students who organize or participate in protests, and investigations into students and university officials who express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The report didn’t shy away from the fact that President Donald Trump was a factor in the U.S.’s downgrade.
Trump’s return to the White House and his actions since have “triggered a wave of measures undermining democratic institutions and civic freedoms,” the organization said, taking note of “a drastic surge in violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.”
“The backsliding on rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the United States is truly alarming,” Mandeep Tiwana, secretary general of Civicus, is quoted as saying in the report. “We are witnessing a rapid and systematic attempt to stifle civic freedoms that Americans have come to take for granted, such as critiquing authorities and protesting peacefully.”
“As the U.S.A. prepares to mark 250 years since the American Revolution, we urge the government to course-correct and uphold the civic freedoms enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” Tiwana said in a separate statement.
Civicus’s new report follows other reports from the organization that have been critical of the U.S., including one from this past fall. That report centered on Trump’s executive orders deeming “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization and instructing law enforcement agencies to focus on supposed political violence from left-leaning actors — despite studies demonstrating that most political violence in the U.S. emanates from the right.
“The memorandum claims a surge in ‘organized campaigns of radicalization, intimidation, and violence’ allegedly led by ‘self-described anti-fascism movements,’ yet provides no evidence to substantiate these allegations,” Civicus said in their report last month.
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