CORRUPTION, SECURITY, AND JUSTICE: Mexico dropped in global ranking of the Rule of Law Index

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At the regional level, Latin America and the Caribbean are among the five worst rated countries, along with Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela

Mexico fell three positions in the global ranking of the 2020 Rule of Law Index, carried out by the civil organization World Justice Project, placing it in 104th place out of a list of 128 countries and jurisdictions worldwide.

The index measures the performance of the rule of law based on eight factors: restrictions on the powers of the government, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory compliance, civil justice, and criminal justice.

It is obtained through national surveys of more than 139,000 households and 4,000 lawyers and experts around the world.

The document points out that, in Mexico, corruption, security, and criminal justice are aspects that require attention.

Among the causes that led to the country being less evaluated than the previous year, a deterioration in the perception of order and security stands out.

The indicator where the country is best evaluated is in open government. There it ranks 36th out of 128 countries analyzed. 

México retrocede en el ranking global del Índice de Estado de Derecho | El  Economista

In position 26 out of 30 regionally

If the results of the document are analyzed on a regional scale, it is observed that in the list of 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico is in position 26, that is, only Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela are worse off and have Similar levels to the country Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, although they exceed it.

At the regional level, the country with the best performance in the Index in Latin America and the Caribbean is Uruguay (22 out of 128 countries worldwide), followed by Costa Rica and Chile. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region are Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

On a scale from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates the highest adherence to the rule of law, Mexico obtains a score of 0.44, 103 positions from Denmark that has a score of 0.90, which leads the list and places it as the country where there is a better rule of law.

Denmark, Norway and Finland topped the WJP Rule of Law Index rankings in 2020.

Meanwhile, Venezuela, Cambodia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the lowest overall scores, the same in 2019.

The report highlights that this year and for the third year in a row, more countries declined than improved in the general performance of the rule of law, continuing a negative slide towards the weakening and stagnation of the rule of law around the world.

Most of the countries showing a deteriorating rule of law in the 2020 Index, also declined the previous year, showing a persistent downward trend. This was particularly pronounced when measuring restrictions on the powers of government.

The declines were widespread and were seen in all corners of the world. Across all regions, most countries regressed or remained unchanged in their overall performance.

The countries with the greatest improvement in the rule of law were Ethiopia and Malaysia, with increases of 5.6% and 5.1%, respectively, in their score, mainly driven by improvements in restrictions on government powers and fundamental rights.

At the global level, the strongest falls occurred in the areas of Fundamental Rights (54 countries worsened, 29 improved), Limits to Government Power (52 worsened, 28 improved), and Absence of Corruption (51 worsened, 26 improved).

This is not a new trend, the WJP data shows that this trend has occurred over the past five years. Specifically, the factor that evaluates Fundamental Rights fell in 67 countries since 2015.

The factor that measures civil justice showed greater advances during the last year, since 47 countries improved, compared to 41 that decreased. Since 2015, the factor that has improved the most is the indicator of regulatory compliance, since it increased in 65 countries, while 29 have registered decreases in their scores.

Source: eleconomista.com.mx

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