The rule of law has eroded in a majority of countries for the seventh year in a row and last year, it has declined in 57% of countries surveyed – including Guyana.
This is the finding of theWorld Justice Project (WJP) according to its Rule of Law Index 2024. In a release yesterday, WJP noted that Guyana’s overall rule-of-law score decreased by less than 1% in this year’s Index and it currently ranks 77th out of 142 countries worldwide.
The World Justice Project (WJP) is an independent, nonpartisan, multidisciplinary organisation working to create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide. Its Rule of Law Index is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law.
Now covering 142 countries and jurisdictions, the Index relies on more than 214,000 household surveys and 3,500 legal expert surveys to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide.
According to the Index, regionally, Guyana ranks 16th out of 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, while the region’s top performer is Uruguay – ranked 24th out of 142 globally – followed by Costa Rica and Barbados. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region are Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela – 142nd globally.
Further, in the last year, 20 out of 32 countries declined in Latin America and the Caribbean, and of those 20 countries, 13 had also declined in the previous year.
Among high income countries, Guyana ranks 47th out of 47.
Guyana and global trends
The Index pointed out that since 2016, a global rule-of-law recession has affected 77% of countries studied, but not Guyana. Globally, the declines were largely driven by authoritarian trends. Between 2016 and 2024, the Index factor measuring Fundamental Rights fell in 81% of countries, but not in Guyana.
Over the past seven years, Index scores for Constraints on Government Powers have fallen in 77% of countries, but not in Guyana. Around the world, legislatures, judiciaries, and civil society—including the media—have all lost ground on checking executive power, the Index shows.
While these and other authoritarian trends had slowed a little last year, they expanded in 2024, with Guyana among the 63% of countries where Fundamental Rights fell in the past year, and among the 59% of countries where Constraints on Government Powers fell in the past year.
The release went on to state that despite this global backsliding, a smaller majority of countries experienced overall rule of law declines this year (57%), as compared to the last two (59% and 61%). One reason is that some progress was made globally in the fight against corruption between 2023 and 2024 and as such, this year, 59% of countries saw their Index scores for Absence of Corruption improve – including Guyana.
WJP Co-founder and President William H. Neukom noted, “After years of rule of law declines it can be easy to focus on the negative. But to do so would ignore accomplishments in anti-corruption and the hard work occurring to improve justice systems globally. We must redouble our efforts to expand these rule of law gains in all areas.”
Global rankings
Globally, the top-ranked country in the 2024 WJP Rule of Law Index is Denmark, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. The country with the lowest score is Venezuela, followed by Cambodia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Myanmar.
Guyana’s WJP Rule of Law Index rankings
Overall score global rank: 77/142; overall score regional rank: 16/32
Factor score rankings: 
(1 is best in WJP Rule of Law Index rankings)
Persons interested in seeing Guyana’s performance across all 44 sub-factors the Index measures can visit: www.worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/2024/Guyana
The countries and jurisdictions measured in the Latin America and Caribbean region are: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela.
