As the Democracy Tracker Project Coordinator with International IDEA’s Democracy Assessment team, Atsuko Hirakawa works with colleagues to evaluate the latest developments affecting democracy worldwide. Here, she shares background about her work and why Democracy Tracker is uniquely valuable to users in civil society and beyond.
How do you contribute each month to the Democracy Tracker?
As the project coordinator, I manage donor and partner relations, promote the Tracker through presentations and consultations with stakeholders, and assess and integrate feedback for the Tracker’s continuous improvement in close collaboration with the Democracy Assessment (DA) team. This includes improving both the rigor of the research methodology as well as the tool’s usefulness and intuitiveness from users’ perspectives. Each month, I review monthly event reports of all four regions developed by DA team’s regional analysts and provide quality control before publication on the website.
Why does the Democracy Tracker matter? What makes it unique?
Democracy Tracker is unique because it tracks how particular events impact democracy at the country level monthly. It analyzes how and what aspects of democracy are impacted by specific events, which I believe helps bring the concept of “democracy” closer to the users. Analyzing individual countries also means that we highlight positive developments taking place in what may be known as a more suppressive environment (e.g. Chad’s asylum law decree), as well as a negative trajectory or lack of progress in established democracies (e.g. Japan’s criminal justice system) all in one place. This provides users with a broad, comprehensive, and perhaps even surprising picture of how democracy is faring around the world.
What are some noteworthy new developments or trends from this month’s Democracy Tracker reporting?
We’ve seen a range of advances and setbacks on LGBTQIA+ rights globally. This includes advances in recognition of rights like adoption and same-sex marriage in countries such as Japan, Namibia, Nepal and Taiwan. We’ve also seen progress towards decriminalizing homosexuality in Sri Lanka and criminalizing conversion practices in Cyprus. Meanwhile, challenges to LGBTQIA+ rights continue, with the President of Uganda signing a law that criminalizes the promotion of homosexuality and prescribes death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” And the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Romania must make domestic legislative changes to recognize same-sex relationships, in line with its commitments as a Council of Europe member state.
How do you personally use the Democracy Tracker? What features do you find most helpful?
I often use the country profiles and searchable archive function to do research on topics like elections, gender equality, freedom of expression or civic space. The archive helps me find trends or comparative cases that I can potentially use when presenting the Tracker to stakeholders. For example, the “Civil Society” filter allows us to see how governments’ actions in recent months impact civic space across regions. Tracking the shutdown of organizations and the imprisonment of activists in wide-ranging countries like Nicaragua, Libya, Belarus, Algeria, and Turkey can be useful for human rights activists and organizations campaigning to protect civil society.
What response have you heard so far about the Democracy Tracker? What do other users find helpful?
Responses from users have been positive and encouraging. In one instance, I heard from researchers from the Swedish Parliament who found Democracy Tracker’s monthly event reports, country profiles, and archive function useful for MPs when they travel (such as for electoral observation missions) or when they receive visits from abroad. Another parliamentary staffer in Stockholm said he envisioned the Tracker helping members of the foreign affairs committees or inter-parliamentary assemblies, as well as those accompanying the Speaker on missions or other international exchanges. It’s a helpful guide to a broad understanding of the state of democracy at the country level.
