The liberty bell is silent and the arc of freedom is bending backwards away from justice and peace. This troubling reality was brought forth with a recent report from Freedom House. The quality and level of equality have been steadily decreasing over the past years with 2015 marking the sharpest decline yet.

This is, after all, no surprise; we have been watching the dilapidating state of the Middle East and North Africa, the least-free region of the world, for several years. We have been a witness to the imprisonment and murder of journalists, the shooting of protests and inhumane beheadings of extremists and, of course, the millions of refugees fleeing from Syrian violence.

But how do we measure this rise in oppression?

Obviously, different matters are measured differently, but Freedom House, the self-described independent democracy watchdog, uses a system that rates real-world observations of freedom, including women’s freedom, religious freedom, the rule of law, and transparency of government operations. The score then produces three categories: Free, Partly Free, and Not Free.

Overall, only 40% live in countries judged free (down from 46% a decade ago). That means that out of 195 countries, only 86 of rated free and even those the report notes that leading democracies are going through a crisis of confidence. Instead of leading, they have divided, unwilling to come together to make a successful policy to overcome these global challenges.

This self-doubt could not have been timed worse. In 2015, the freedom level deteriorated in 72 countries and gained only 43. This enormous decline is undoing the advances seen in the last quarter of the 20th century.

The freest regions in the world still stand with the Americas and Europe, along with India, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. However, in the Middle East, only Tunisia and Israel are ranked as free. Also, Russia and China also stick out for significantly lacking individual rights. This is where Freedom House points to Russian President Putin for challenging liberal rights at home, and notes that the Communist Party of China has to rely on economic growth and political repression in order to keep a firm grip on power.

In addition, there were saddening finds on women’s rights which accentuated the failure of the world’s 20-year-old commitment to advance women’s rights and equality. The bar has been lowered so much that even the smallest of achievements are treated as victories, such as Saudi Arabia now allowing women to vote for weak municipal councils with permission from a male guardian.

This is painful to watch from the United States as we have head into the idea the humanity steadily moves towards freedom. The kind of optimism brought forth by people such as Martin Luther King Jr. After all, President Obama’s words on the night he won the election, back in 2008, were to put our hands “on the arc of history, and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.” Yet, the words of our leaders have not been reflected in the world around us.

I agree with the writer because it is evident that freedom is being reversed significantly. It’s all over the news and basically plastered onto our eyes. If we do not that the step to bending towards freedom, the built-up pressure could result in a devastating snap, harming both oppressed and oppressors. That is why this affects both me and the world.

<http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/30/opinions/freedom-world-reverse/index.html>