The Protestant aid organization Bread for the World published the Atlas of Civil Society last week. The book documents in which countries fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression and assembly are guaranteed.
Only 240 million people in 39 countries enjoy this comprehensive level of freedom, according to the study. Nine out of ten people, on the other hand, lived in countries with a «limited», «oppressed» or even «closed» civil society. The world map, which illustrates the degree of repression and restriction in color from green to yellow, orange, and red, shows the oppressive situation. 70 percent of the world’s population lived in states that suppressed their civil society or closed it completely. It can be assumed that fundamental freedoms will continue to decline worldwide, explained Dagmar Pruin at the presentation of the study. While Romania, for example, has developed positively, because Sinti and Roma are now protected, civil liberties in Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Poland are in retreat. The report shows that in 2021 there were more autocratic regimes than ever before. What life is to nature is freedom to the human mind. The spiritual life is therefore dwindling – or is the opposite the case? Because the spiritual life, because the individual desire for freedom is everywhere, the repression increases. Repression is therefore a shadow of spiritual life. It was no different at the time, which refers to Easter. In the shadow of the laws and their guardians began a spiritual life, and the liberation of all people began to transform the world.
Picture An activist on his way to the rally against the war in Ukraine, Riga, March 2022. Image Source: Gints Ivuskans/EP/European Union 2022
