Freedom House and Bhutan

Freedom House is a United States-based non-governmental organisation that publishes annual assessments of political rights and civil liberties in every country and territory in the world. Bhutan has appeared in its flagship Freedom in the World report since the 1990s. For most of that period the country was classified as "Not Free" and, after the 2008 transition to constitutional monarchy, as "Partly Free". In the 2025 edition of the report, Freedom House upgraded Bhutan to "Free", the first time it had ever held that classification.^[1]

The 2025 upgrade gave Bhutan an aggregate score of 68 out of 100, comprising 32 out of 40 on political rights and 36 out of 60 on civil liberties. Bhutan was one of only two countries Freedom House elevated to "Free" that year — the other was Senegal — and the only South Asian country in the top band, placing it above India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives and Afghanistan.^[1]^[2]

The finding was received positively in Bhutan-based media and by government-aligned commentators. It drew sharper reactions from independent press-freedom monitors, diaspora publications and human rights researchers, who pointed to the continued exclusion of expelled Lhotshampa, the unresolved status of long-term political prisoners, and the collapse of Bhutan's standing in press-freedom indices over the same period.

About Freedom House

Freedom House was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1941, initially to rally American public support against fascism in Europe. After the Second World War it became one of the earliest organisations devoted to monitoring democracy and civil liberties worldwide. It is primarily funded by the United States government through grants from agencies such as the State Department and USAID, alongside private foundation support — a funding profile that critics on the political left and in non-aligned states have long cited as a reason for scepticism about its neutrality.^[3]

The organisation has published the Freedom in the World report annually since 1972. Each country is scored on 25 indicators covering political rights (electoral process, political pluralism and participation, functioning of government) and civil liberties (freedom of expression and belief, associational and organisational rights, rule of law, personal autonomy and individual rights). Political rights are scored out of 40, civil liberties out of 60, and the aggregate determines whether a country is rated "Free" (70–100, or a combination of sub-scores meeting the relevant thresholds), "Partly Free" (35–69) or "Not Free" (0–34). Assessments are prepared by external analysts and reviewed by an advisory board of academics and regional specialists.^[4]

Freedom House also publishes Freedom on the Net, a separate annual assessment of internet freedom, and Nations in Transit, which focuses on post-communist Europe and Central Asia. Bhutan is not currently included in Freedom on the Net; its small internet user base and limited independent research on its digital environment have kept it outside the sample covered by that report.

Bhutan's trajectory, 1990s to 2024

Through the 1990s Freedom House classified Bhutan as "Not Free", with scores among the lowest in Asia. Reports from that period cited the absolute monarchy, the absence of elections, restrictions on association, the expulsion of over 100,000 Lhotshampa, and the use of the legal system against political opponents, most prominently Tek Nath Rizal.

The Constitution of 2008 and the first parliamentary elections that year produced a significant reclassification. Bhutan moved from "Not Free" to "Partly Free", reflecting the introduction of a bicameral parliament, competitive elections, a formal separation of powers, and a constitutional bill of rights. The 2013 election, in which the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) defeated the incumbent Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), was cited as evidence that Bhutanese voters could unseat a sitting government — a crucial marker for Freedom House's political rights index.^[5]

Between 2014 and 2024 Bhutan's aggregate score drifted upwards within the "Partly Free" band. The 2024 report placed it at 63/100, with political rights scored in the mid-to-high 20s out of 40 and civil liberties in the high 20s to low 30s out of 60. Civil liberties consistently lagged political rights, with the report citing self-censorship in the press, the marginalisation of ethnic and religious minorities, the unresolved refugee issue, restrictions on civil society organisations, and the absence of a Right to Information Act.^[5]

The 2025 upgrade

The 2025 Freedom in the World report upgraded Bhutan from "Partly Free" to "Free" on the strength of the January 2024 National Assembly election and the subsequent formation of a new government. The report stated that Bhutan's status had improved "because free and fair legislative elections and the formation of a new government further consolidated a long democratic reform process in the kingdom, and because physical security and the environment for civil liberties have steadily improved in recent years".^[1]

The 2024 election was Bhutan's fourth general election since the democratic transition. The PDP, led by Tshering Tobgay, won a majority of seats in the second round of voting after the incumbent DNT was eliminated in the primary round. Freedom House described the election as "generally regarded as free and fair, with few reported irregularities", and pointed to the peaceful rotation of power among three different parties across four election cycles as a sign of democratic consolidation.^[1]

Bhutan's new aggregate score of 68/100 comprised 32/40 on political rights and 36/60 on civil liberties. The political rights gain was substantial; the civil liberties score remained below the halfway mark of its maximum and continued to be the weakest part of the assessment. Freedom House flagged persistent concerns including discrimination against ethnic Nepalis, restrictive citizenship legislation, the unresolved situation of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, and cross-border pressures, including reports of Chinese construction of villages and infrastructure inside Bhutanese-claimed territory since 2015.^[1]

The upgrade placed Bhutan in unusual company. Across South Asia, Freedom House in 2025 rated India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as "Partly Free", and Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Maldives as either "Partly Free" or "Not Free". Bhutan was the only country in the region to cross the threshold into "Free". Globally, 2025 was a year in which the number of countries registering declines in political rights and civil liberties again outnumbered those registering gains, making the Bhutan upgrade one of very few positive movements.^[2]

Divergence from other indices

The "Free" rating sits uneasily alongside other major international assessments of Bhutan published in the same period. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in its 2025 World Press Freedom Index, ranked Bhutan 152nd out of 180 countries — a collapse from 33rd place in 2022. The RSF score cited pervasive self-censorship, the financial dependence of private media on government advertising, criminal defamation provisions, and the disappearance of independent reporting on politically sensitive topics. The Bhutan Media Foundation's own journalist surveys have reported self-censorship rates above 80 per cent.^[6]

The divergence reflects a methodological difference rather than a factual disagreement. Freedom in the World measures political rights and civil liberties broadly, weighted towards electoral and institutional dimensions; a country with competitive elections and peaceful transfers of power can achieve a "Free" rating even where press freedom, minority rights, or civil society independence are weak. The RSF index, by contrast, measures a single dimension — press freedom — in granular detail. The two findings are not mutually exclusive: Bhutan in 2025 could hold free and fair elections and simultaneously have one of the most constrained media environments in Asia.

Other assessments sit between the two. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have continued to document concerns about statelessness, land confiscation, the unresolved status of political prisoners, and discriminatory application of the 1985 Citizenship Act. The US State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices has continued to list serious concerns about press freedom, minority rights, and due process, even as it has also acknowledged the orderly conduct of elections.

Freedom on the Net

Bhutan has not been included in Freedom House's Freedom on the Net report, which as of 2025 covered 72 countries accounting for most of the world's internet users. Bhutan's exclusion reflects its relatively small internet user base rather than a judgment about the quality of its digital environment. Independent researchers have noted that Bhutan's internet freedom has not been subject to the same sustained scrutiny as its electoral politics, and that government capacity to monitor online speech has expanded without being systematically documented by any international index.

Reception in Bhutan

The 2025 upgrade was reported prominently in Bhutan's domestic media. Kuensel, Business Bhutan and the Bhutan Broadcasting Service carried the news as confirmation that the country's democratic reforms were being recognised internationally. Business Bhutan, in a widely shared feature, quoted an entrepreneur saying, "We are one of the youngest democracies, but we are citing examples, and becoming a model for other countries", and a senior civil servant describing the rating as "testament that we are headed in the right direction".^[7]

Coverage in Bhutan-based outlets was almost uniformly celebratory and did not engage with the parallel RSF ranking or with independent human rights reporting. The Royal Government of Bhutan did not issue a formal statement but ministers and senior officials referenced the upgrade in subsequent speeches and parliamentary interventions.

Critical responses

Diaspora publications and independent researchers responded with more scepticism. Bhutan News Network and other exile outlets published analyses arguing that the "Free" classification did not reflect the lived experience of the Lhotshampa community, several thousand of whom remained in protracted limbo in camps in eastern Nepal, with smaller numbers stateless within Bhutan. Commentators noted that the category improvement had occurred in the same year that the United States began deporting a number of resettled Bhutanese refugees — some of whom faced statelessness because Bhutan continued to refuse to recognise their citizenship — and argued that a country capable of exiling and refusing to readmit a sixth of its population should not be classified alongside the world's most open democracies regardless of its electoral record.^[8]

Writers including the Nepali publisher Kanak Mani Dixit called on the King of Bhutan to mark the moment by pardoning remaining political prisoners and allowing Bhutan-born refugees to return as citizens, arguing that the gap between Freedom House's assessment and Bhutan's unresolved human rights record made such gestures both appropriate and overdue. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International did not issue formal responses to the upgrade, but both organisations continued to publish material throughout 2025 documenting concerns that the new classification did not address.

Academic observers pointed to the structural incentive problem facing any aggregate index: a single strong score on electoral process can lift an overall rating even when other components remain weak, and the resulting headline number can obscure the mixed picture underneath. The Bhutan case was cited in several post-publication analyses as an example of how categorical labels ("Free", "Partly Free") can distort a more granular reality.

Significance

For Bhutan's government, the 2025 upgrade was a significant diplomatic asset. It provided an independent, US-based imprimatur for the country's democratic transition, useful in bilateral engagements and in countering criticism from exile organisations and foreign human rights bodies. The rating has been cited in subsequent government communications and in presentations of Bhutan as a reform success story.

For readers of international human rights reporting, the upgrade illustrates the limits of any single metric. Bhutan in 2025 simultaneously held the distinction of being the only "Free" country in South Asia according to Freedom House and one of the lowest-ranked countries in the world for press freedom according to RSF. Both findings can be defended on the evidence each index was designed to measure; neither, on its own, gives a complete account of rights and freedoms in the country.

References

Freedom House. "Bhutan: Freedom in the World 2025." https://freedomhouse.org/country/bhutan/freedom-world/2025
France 24 / AFP. "Rights decline but bright spots in South Asia: Freedom House." 26 February 2025. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250226-rights-decline-but-bright-spots-in-south-asia-freedom-house
Freedom House. "About Us." https://freedomhouse.org/about-us
Freedom House. "Freedom in the World Research Methodology." https://freedomhouse.org/reports/freedom-world/freedom-world-research-methodology
Freedom House. "Bhutan: Freedom in the World 2024." https://freedomhouse.org/country/bhutan/freedom-world/2024
Reporters Without Borders. "Bhutan." World Press Freedom Index. https://rsf.org/en/country/bhutan
Business Bhutan. "Freedom House Rates Bhutan as South Asia's Only 'Free' Nation." https://businessbhutan.bt/freedom-house-rates-bhutan-as-south-asias-only-free-nation/
Bhutan News Network. "Without Home." August 2025. https://bhutannewsnetwork.com/2025/08/without-home/