Human Rights in South Africa - Historical Situation

Historical Situation

The following chart shows South Africa's ratings since 1972 in the Freedom in the World reports, published annually by Freedom House. A rating of 1 is "free"; 7, "not free".1

Historical ratings
Year Political Rights Civil Liberties Status Head of Government2
1972 5 6 Not Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1973 4 5 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1974 4 5 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1975 4 5 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1976 4 5 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1977 5 6 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1978 5 6 Partly Free Balthazar Johannes Vorster
1979 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1980 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1981 5 6 Not Free Pieter Willem Botha
19823 5 6 Not Free Pieter Willem Botha
1983 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1984 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1985 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1986 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1987 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1988 5 6 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1989 6 5 Partly Free Pieter Willem Botha
1990 5 4 Partly Free Frederik Willem de Klerk
1991 5 4 Partly Free Frederik Willem de Klerk
1992 5 4 Partly Free Frederik Willem de Klerk
1993 5 4 Partly Free Frederik Willem de Klerk
1994 2 3 Free Frederik Willem de Klerk
1995 1 2 Free Nelson Mandela
1996 1 2 Free Nelson Mandela
1997 1 2 Free Nelson Mandela
1998 1 2 Free Nelson Mandela
1999 1 2 Free Nelson Mandela
2000 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2001 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2002 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2003 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2004 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2005 1 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2006 2 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2007 2 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2008 2 2 Free Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
2009 2 2 Free Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe
2010 2 2 Free Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
2011 2 2 Free Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
2012 2 2 Free Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
2013 2 2 Free Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma

Read more about this topic:  Human Rights In South Africa

Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or situation:

    In public buildings set aside for the care and maintenance of the goods of the middle ages, a staff of civil service art attendants praise all the dead, irrelevant scribblings and scrawlings that, at best, have only historical interest for idiots and layabouts.
    George Grosz (1893–1959)

    All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.
    June Jordan (b. 1939)