The rule of law: nothing to celebrate

Yesterday, the Global Justice Project Association presented the 2021 Report of the Global Rule of Law Index (GRI).www.worldjusticeproject.org). It includes 139 countries and, since 2009, has become the most complete indicator of government compliance with transparency, accountability, respect for fundamental rights, civil and criminal justice, based on the experiences of citizens, practitioners and experts in each country.

Although it is difficult to define a concept, more or less adherence to the rule of law directly affects the lives of its citizens through the exercise of freedoms, access to justice, security, or the quality of public services.

The results raise few surprises. European countries, particularly the Nordic countries, ranked first, followed by Australia, Japan and Singapore. Canada is the best American country (12), while Uruguay is at 25 and the United States at 27. On the other hand, three Latin American countries appear at the bottom of the ranking: Bolivia, Haiti and Venezuela, which repeat the last place. (139).

In the overall table, Mexico slipped one seat in relation to 2020 to rank 113. But regionally, Mexico ranks 27th out of 32 countries, just above Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela. By income level, our country appears in the 37/40 position of upper middle income countries. We defeated Turkey, Iran and Venezuela.

By the categories evaluated, in terms of open government, we ranked 43rd, our best score, thanks to a system of transparency and access to public information.

In the field of human rights, we ranked 91 thanks to individual religious or union freedoms. Within the limits of governmental authority, we are ranked 102nd, due to the peaceful transfer of powers and the counterweight to civil society.

Bad grades begin with law enforcement, as we drop to rank 105; The system and security component, where we are located at the 130th site; In Criminal Justice, 129, and In Civil Justice, 131.

But our worst scores fall into the “absence of corruption” category. The one who is supposed to have already been banished. There we occupy the shameful place of 135/139. We only outperform Uganda, Cameroon, Cambodia and the Republic of the Congo.

Hardly a plate to show off. They’ll say the comparisons are repugnant, but it’ll be useful to see what successful countries do, and apply ourselves. We are also aware of where those achievements that our government has celebrated appear.

Unfortunately, we don’t excel at anything. It is the image of a schizophrenic country. We are not Venezuela, but we seem closer to it than our trading partners. And so far from the image of a respectable country that they want to sell it to us. A Thirteenth World Economy with the Rule of Law in the Third World.

by VERÓNICA ORTIZ
[email protected]
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