By Omar Bah
The World Justice Project (WJP) yesterday released the WJP Rule of Law Index 2021, an annual report based on national surveys of more than 130,000 households and 4,000 legal practitioners and experts around the world.
The WJP Rule of Law Index measures rule of law performance in 139 countries and jurisdictions across eight primary factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice.
The index is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law.
The Gambia, a new addition to the WJP Rule of Law Index last year, is placed 89th out of 139 countries and jurisdictions worldwide.
The Gambia’s overall rule of law score decreased 3.1% in this year’s index. It fell eight positions in global rank. The Gambia’s score places it at 10 out of 33 countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region and 4 out of 18 among low-income countries.
Regionally, sub-Saharan Africa’s top performer in the index is Rwanda (42nd out of 139 countries globally), followed by Namibia and Mauritius. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region were Mauritania, Cameroon, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (137th out of 139 countries globally).
