The fall of the Assad regim e has seen Syria make some of the biggest gains in political rights, in Freedom House's ' Freedom of the World ' annual report, although some challenges remain. Syria increased freedoms by five points in the index released this week, which, along with Sri Lanka and Bolivia, was the biggest gain in political freedoms in the report.
The annual report assesses freedoms in countries across the world, with political rights assessed on a scale of 0–40 and civil rights from 0-60.
While Syria still performed poorly in the index -2/40 for political freedoms and 12/60 for political liberties, the country's overall score improved from 5/40 in 2025 to 10/40 in the latest report.
Freedom House has yet to publish Syria's 'Freedom of the World' report, but the Information Minister Hamzah Al-Mustafa welcomed the initial findings and said the country is on the road to greater liberties for the people.
"Syria has made significant progress in the Freedom House index, an organisation specialised in monitoring freedoms and classifying political regimes around the world," he wrote on X.
"Freedom of expression and the media is a major gain and a fundamental pillar in building legitimacy for any political system, especially in transitional phases. This is something the Syrian government has generally prioritised, and the Ministry of Information in particular, bearing much in its pursuit.
"However, gains are protected by regulatory rules, codes of conduct, and laws that prevent freedoms from being used in chaotic and destructive ways. This is a cumulative path whose theoretical groundwork we recently completed, paving the way for its implementation soon."
Syria's new government inherited a multitude of repressive laws under the former regime, and has been working to undo some of the most stifling restrictions on media and civil society.
There have been a host of local and foreign media writing critically about the new government and protests held in Syrian cities against new laws, including last week's demonstrations against new restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Damascus .
Such scenes would be unimaginable under the previous regime, and protests have largely gone unharrassed by security forces, yet there are some concerns about the future. Syria's recent parliamentary elections were criticised as having 'rubber-stamp' candidates running in a vote that did not have the direct involvement of the people, while some journalists and activists have been detained by security forces.
Among them is Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American journalist who has been critical of the new government and has been detained since December .
The government has also been criticised for massacres in Suweida and Latakia provinces, where hundreds of civilians were killed by security forces following local uprisings.
Still, it is widely accepted that Syria is freer under the new government, with the 'human slaughterhouse' Saydnaya Prison, where tens of thousands of detainees were executed or tortured to death under the Assad regime, and the most notorious intelligence services closed.