19fortyfive.com
March 12, 2025
Once again, Freedom House awarded Finland, Norway, and Sweden its top rankings in its annual Freedom in the World dataset. Finland received a perfect score of 100, scoring 40 out of a possible 40 for political rights and the maximum 60 for civil liberties. Norway and Sweden each scored 99 total points, with Norway docked one point for political rights and Sweden losing one point for civil liberties. The United States, in contrast, scored just 84—on par with Mongolia and below Slovakia, Italy, and France.
The Scandinavian countries do not deserve such laurels, however. Over the past 18 months, each was put to the test and each failed, putting commercial and military interests above freedom and human rights.
Consider Finland: On November 29, 2024, following a referendum, Biafrans formally declared their independence during a convention in Finland. Occupying the Igbo-populated region of southeastern Nigeria, Biafra first sought independence in 1967. The Nigerian government responded with a deliberate campaign of genocide that claimed more than two million lives. Many war criminals from that era subsequently rose to Nigeria’s highest ranks including former President Muhammadu Buhari, whom Secretary of State Antony Blinken feted during his first trip to Nigeria. In recent years, the Nigerian government has resumed its assaults on the Christian Igbo. It buses in Fulani Islamist militiamen to slaughter Christians. While the Biden administration wrote that off as the result of climate change-induced migration, this was nonsense: global warming does not charter buses for gunmen; Nigerian government officials do.
It was against this backdrop that Simon Ekpa, a Biafran activist born in Nigeria who moved to Finland with his family in 2007, helped organize a referendum that culminated in the independence declaration. Certainly, Ekpa has his critics, both among the Biafran community and in Finland, but his activities violated no Finnish law. Quite the contrary, he was a productive member of Finnish society, serving as chairman of the main Igbo diaspora community in Finland as well as the local playground board. He served in the Finnish Army and ran for local office. Criticism is expected. The Indigenous People of Biafra is faction-ridden; there are jealousies and genuine philosophical differences. Nigeria pressures other Igbo leaders to condemn Ekpa and other Biafran activists, in much the same way that Turkey makes some Kurdish spokesmen offers they cannot refuse to condemn the Kurdish freedom movement.
In the run up to the Biafran convention, though, Nigerian leaders were scared. Nigeria is among the world’s most corrupt countries. As its government hemorrhages legitimacy, Nigerian political and military leaders seek to distract the population with sectarian and ethnic incitement. The Nigerian leadership might argue Ekpa exaggerated the results of the Biafra plebiscite, but every Nigerian knows if they allowed a United Nations-monitored vote inside Biafra, the local population would vote for freedom. Nigeria took another route, however: It lobbied the Finnish government to arrest Ekpa, threatening to cancel trade deals unless Helsinki acted. Finnish President Alexander Stubb exposed Finland’s human rights commitment as cosmetic when his government then imprisoned Ekpa.
Something similar happened in Norway. There are few countries in Africa as brutal as Cameroon. Ruled by President Paul Biya for more than 40 years, it was a colonial construct based on fraud and deception. The British colonial territory of Southern Cameroons was a League of Nations Trust Territory that, upon the League of Nation’s dissolution fell under the authority of the UN Trusteeship Council which in turn extended British control. A 1961 referendum offered residents a choice between joining the French portions of Cameroun and the new state of Nigeria; there was no option for their own independence. The people of Southern Cameroons chose Cameroun on the condition it be federal with both English and French as official languages. The French speaking Cameroonians treated English-speakers as second-class citizens and, in 1972, formally abolished federalism and all protections the Anglophones enjoyed. Cameroon is today as corrupt as Nigeria and among the least free countries in Africa.
The disenfranchised residents of former Southern Cameroons tried to work within the system but, after a violent crackdown on civil society protests in 2016, they now recognize they have no choice but to abrogate the failed Cameroon compact. Today, they seek their own nation—Ambazonia—whose exiled leader Lucas Ayaba Cho lives in Norway, having reportedly escaped an assassination attempt in Brussels. On September 24, 2024, Norwegian authorities arrested Cho at Biya’s request. In effect, Norway conducted transnational repression on behalf of Africa’s longest-serving dictator. Norway may be free and democratic, but its leaders condescend that white Norwegians deserve a higher standard of freedom and legal protection than African immigrants.
Sweden’s betrayal of democracy and freedom was even more cynical. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland both sought to join NATO. Turkey saw an opportunity to extort Sweden, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson readily obliged. Many Turkish and Kurdish dissidents had long ago fled Turkey for Sweden believing they would be safe there from the long arm of Turkish repression. Not only to Kristersson crack down on dissidents, but he also extradited a Kurd wanted on spurious charges back to Turkey. That action had a chilling effect on Kurdish civil society in Sweden that has never fully recovered since Swedes accused Kurds of involvement in the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olaf Palme; only in 2020 did investigators conclude that one of their eye witnesses—an ethnic Swede who died in 2000—was the likely assailant.
Finland, Norway, and Sweden deserve high freedom rankings. They have admirable records that span decades. It is always a mistake, however, to calibrate policy to the way countries were in the past or remain blind to how they are changing. When immigrants and ethnic minorities receive fewer rights than other citizens, democracies are not perfect. Perhaps Freedom House elided over Scandinavia because greater problems loom elsewhere, but the best way to protect democracy is to call out its abuse. Finland, Norway, and Sweden’s presence at the top of Freedom House rankings increasingly seems like an anachronism rather than a reflection of today’s reality.