The non-governmental organization of lawyers “World Justice Project” (WJP) released its annual “Rule of Law Index” on Wednesday, showing that the global situation has deteriorated for the fifth consecutive year.
In 85 or 61% of the 140 countries evaluated, the situation worsened, while it only improved in 52 countries, including Latvia.
All the top four places in the “Rule of Law Index” are occupied by the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.
Followed by the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Estonia. Ireland completes the top ten.
Latvia, like last year, was ranked in 24th place, but its index, which is measured from 0 to 1, increased slightly, from 0.71 to 0.72. In comparison, Denmark, which is in first place, has an index of 0.90.
Meanwhile, Estonia climbed from 11th to 9th place, ahead of Ireland and Austria, but its index went from 0.81 to 0.82.
The third of the Baltic states – Lithuania – maintained 18th place, but its index rose from 0.75 to 0.76.
Venezuela is the last among the countries rated with an index of 0.26.
The situation is slightly better in Cambodia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On the other hand, world powers such as the USA and China are in 16th and 95th place respectively.
Meanwhile, Russia is in 107th place with an index of 0.45. Same index for Lebanon (106th place) and Ivory Coast (108th place).
In determining the index, the situation is assessed in eight public areas: limitations of government power, corruption, openness of government, fundamental rights, order and security, respect for rules, civil rights and the criminal justice system.
44 additional factors such as labor rights and due process are also assessed.
According to Alisia Evangelides, co-director of the “Rule of Law Index”, the deterioration in the overall situation was most influenced by three factors. Control of government power decreased in 58% of countries, the effectiveness of the civil legal system decreased in 61% of countries, and respect for fundamental rights decreased in 66% of countries.
Since 2015, respect for fundamental rights has suffered the most and in this area the situation has worsened in 76% of countries.
The only area where the situation has improved globally is compliance. Improvements in this area were found in 59% of countries.
