Erosion of Press Freedom is Biggest Driver of Worsening Global Accountability Over Last Five Years, New Report Finds
Global index ranks nearly 200 countries; findings warn that rising impunity is a growing risk for stability, investment, and corporate operations
LONDON, June 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eurasia Group and an expert advisory board today launched the fourth edition of The Atlas of Impunity, one of the most comprehensive global measures of abuse of power and accountability.
The Atlas ranks nearly 200 countries and territories across five metrics: abuse of human rights, unaccountable governance, conflict and violence, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. It defines impunity as the exercise of power without accountability.
This year’s report finds the gap between the most accountable and most impunity‑prone countries is widening to its largest level on record, with declining press freedom identified as a central driver.
“Impunity is on the rise in the world. Many factors contribute to its rise, but the US role stands out,” says Ivo Dalder, Former United States Permanent Representative to NATO and member of the Atlas of Impunity Board. “Just as the US after World War II led the efforts to create and maintain a stable and secure global order, now its abdication of global leadership is undermining global accountability and increasing impunity.”
Alongside analysis of the 2025 results, the report outlines how impunity proliferates – and why it is a material concern for business leaders, activists, policymakers, and citizens.
"The international order was built on the premise that power should be constrained by law, institutions, and shared norms,” said Janine di Giovanni, Board member of The Atlas of Impunity and Executive Director of The Reckoning Project. “The Atlas of Impunity highlights the consequences to business, investment environments, and rule of law when those guardrails begin to erode. By identifying where accountability is weakening, it challenges us to consider what is required to rebuild it."
This year’s report highlights six key learnings:
1. The “great divergence” in global accountability is widening. While the global average impunity score has remained flat since 2020, the gap between the most accountable and the most impunity-prone countries is growing. Accountability is improving in the middle and bottom segments of the distribution, but deteriorating in the most repressive and conflict-ridden states.
2. Unaccountable governance is the single largest driver of global impunity. Across all countries and regions, institutional decay—specifically the erosion of press freedoms, personal liberties, and democratic political culture—serves as a primary engine of rising impunity.
3. The toll of global conflict is highly concentrated in just a few territories. Despite a sharp rise in active conflicts and state-based battle fatalities, the average conflict and violence dimension score has remained stable. Combat and fatalities, civilian violence, and riots are overwhelmingly concentrated in a handful of high-impunity territories.
4. Impunity is fueled by four distinct structural drivers. Countering impunity requires addressing four macro-trends that systematically erode the pillars of global accountability:
- Global economic rebalancing that empowers autocratic regimes and a rising class of ultrawealthy elites.
- Rapid technological change (such as generative AI, the advent of new platform technologies, and the diffusion of smartphones and other devices) that expands the toolkit of those employing repression and evading consequences.
- Advancing illiberalism both within democratic states and through transnational authoritarian networks.
- The “G-Zero” leadership deficit that allows regional conflicts to emerge and rules to be broken without effective guardrails.
5. Impunity spreads through the erosion of the elements of accountability. Drawing on scholarship in public administration, The Atlas argues that accountability in nearly all contexts can be distilled into four essential pillars. The Atlas’s indicators illustrate how the causes of impunity weaken these pillars, which are:
- Rules and norms for acceptable conduct. Examples include domestic and international laws, administrative rules and regulations, norms of appropriate behavior, and policymakers’ commitments under their mandate.
- A high-quality information environment to understand whether rules have been respected. This could include independent media reporting, official transparency reports, or testimony in judicial or legislative proceedings.
- A system of deliberation so that alleged violations can be discussed and the facts ascertained. Relevant forums may include public debates on accountability, trials or tribunals, legislative debates, or truth and reconciliation commissions.
- Just consequences delivered through fair and impartial mechanisms. Examples could be free elections for leadership, court-ordered sentences or other remedies, administrative reviews, legislative censure, or impeachment.
6. The US emerged as a bellwether—its policies are both a cause and consequence of global impunity. Western states are not amongst the most improved in this year’s Atlas. Driven by a “political revolution” under the second Trump administration, the US declined in its ranking, fueled by eroding public administration and rising inequality. Disregard for international institutions and systematic dismantling of US foreign aid have impacted global networks working to uphold rules, norms, and human rights across the world.
The Atlas is developed in partnership between Eurasia Group and a global advisory board of human rights experts. The Atlas is made possible with financial support from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Explore the full report at atlasofimpunity.com.
For requests on the index, methodology, or analysis, contact Eurasia Group at media@eurasiagroup.net.
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Eurasia Group is the world's leading global research and advisory firm. We help clients understand, anticipate, and respond to instability and opportunities everywhere they do business. Together with GZERO Media—the go-to source for first insight into geopolitics—and our full-fledged events team, the Eurasia Group umbrella provides a complete political risk solution. Headquartered in New York, we have offices in Washington DC, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Mexico City, Singapore, São Paulo, and Brasilia, as well as on-the-ground experts in more than a hundred countries in every region of the world. We are committed to analysis that is free of political bias and the influence of private interests.
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