As the United States celebrates its Independence Day, here's a look at some places with nothing to cheer about. The following images are from the bottom 21 countries and territories from Freedom House's Freedom in the World report, with text prepared by the staff of Freedom House.
North Korea
North Koreans enjoy the lowest level of freedom in the world, according to Freedom House. All power is held by Kim Jong Il, who assumed power in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korea's founding leader Kim Il Sung, whose statue in Pyongyang is shown above. The regime maintains a network of prison camps in which thousands of political prisoners are subjected to brutal conditions. All facets of a person's life -- including employment, education, place of residence, access to medical facilities, and access to stores -- are determined by a semihereditary system of social discrimination that classifies citizens into 53 subgroups under broad security ratings (from "core" to "wavering" to "hostile") based on their family's perceived loyalty to the regime.
Burma
A shopkeeper in Yangon, Burma's largest city, counts his earnings. The ruling junta, led by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, governs Burma by decree, controlling all branches of power, impoverishing the formerly wealthy country, and committing widespread human rights abuses against its population with impunity. The junta rejected its landslide defeat in the 1990 elections and has kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in prison or under house arrest for most of the past 19 years. Peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks were brutally suppressed in the fall of 2007, leading to international condemnation.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo holds broad political power in Equatorial Guinea, a country that has never held a credible election. Africa's third-largest oil producer is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with Obiang and his inner circle amassing huge personal wealth from Equatorial Guinea's substantial oil profits. Most of the country, like this city slum, has yet to reap the rewards. Human rights abuses -- including torture, detention of political opponents, and extrajudicial killings -- are widespread.
Once an international pariah, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, above, began mending ties with the international community in 2003, when his country officially took responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay compensation to the victims' families. Political power in the oil-rich state theoretically lies with a system of people's committees, but in practice Qaddafi rules unopposed. Organizing or joining anything akin to a political party is punishable with long prison terms and even death. Women rejected by their families are considered wayward and can be held in "social rehabilitation" facilities indefinitely and without charge.
A man walks through the devastation of Mogadishu, the capital of a state that has virtually ceased to exist. Technically, the country is governed by the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), but its actual control is minimal. There are no effective political parties, and the political process is driven largely by clan loyalty. Conflict continued in Somalia throughout 2008 between the TFG and insurgent groups, including the Islamist militant group Shabab, causing further civilian deaths and the displacement of thousands of Somalis, particularly from the capital, Mogadishu. Attacks against aid workers increased during the year, significantly reducing the activities of many United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations
Africa's largest country has been embroiled in nearly continuous civil wars since it gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who first came to power in a 1989 military coup, was the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide for his role in Sudan's ongoing violence in Darfur. It is widely believed that his government has directed and assisted the systematic killing of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people in the war-torn region since 2003 through its support of militia groups. Above, a displaced Darfuri woman carries her child along train tracks.
Turkmenistan quickly emerged as the most repressive of the newly independent states after the fall of the Soviet Union. President Saparmurat Niyazov, the former head of the Turkmen Communist Party, took power in 1991, isolating the country, gutting formal institutions, muzzling the media, and creating an elaborate personality cult around himself, complete with a gold-plated statue in his image that revolved to always face the sun. Upon his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov took power and promised reforms, pushing through a new constitution and removing the statue, but the country remains a one-party state in which all aspects of political and civil life are strictly controlled. Above, a soldier stands guard at Niyazov's funeral.
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