Freedom House independent watchdog organization released the findings of its "Freedom in the World 2013" annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties in 195 countries and 14 territories. Though Armenia's freedom status continues to be partly free as last year, an improvement was seen since the last survey. Armenia's political rights rating rose from 6 to 5 due to peaceful, competitive elections, the absence of postelection violence following parliamentary balloting in May and the entry of an authentic opposition party into the legislature.

According to the report, despite improvement Armenia failed to achieve electoral democracy status, while Georgia achieved, since it experienced its first orderly transfer of power to the opposition through democratic elections. Remaining as a partly free country, Georgia's political rights rating also improved, however the new government arrested some 30 officials of the previous government, raising concerns about politically motivated prosecutions.

Improvement was seen in Nagorno-Karabakh, which moved from not free to partly free status, due to the participation of a genuine opposition in the July presidential election.

Each country is assigned a numerical rating from 1 to 7 for both political rights and civil liberties, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free.

For full information on the index of economic freedom please visit Freedom House website.