Rule of law weakening
Thailand slips two spots in global survey, with pandemic having notable effect on civic space
Thailand has fallen two places to 80th out of 139 countries for the rule of law, which has been deteriorating worldwide amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Justice Project (WJP).
The areas of greatest decline globally include constraints on government powers, civic space, timeliness of justice and absence of discrimination, the organisation said as it released its Rule of Law Index 2021.
In Thailand, the overall rule of law score decreased 2.2%. The country’s score places it 10th out of 15 surveyed countries in East Asia and the Pacific and 22nd out of 40 among upper-middle income countries.
Among Southeast Asian nations surveyed, Thailand was behind Singapore, which ranked 19th, Malaysia (54th) and Indonesia (68th), and ahead of Vietnam (88th), the Philippines (102nd), Myanmar (128th) and Cambodia, which was second-last in 138th place, ahead of only Venezuela.
The index is an annual report based on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 4,200 legal practitioners and experts around the world. The framework covers eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice. Each factor and related sub-factors are assigned scores ranging from zero (worst) to 1 (best).
Among constraints on government, Thailand’s lowest score (0.38) was for lawful transition of power. Respect for due process (0.28) was seen as a serious weakness in regulatory enforcement.
For the judiciary, the civil justice system had a “no corruption” score of 0.70, while the comparable score for the criminal justice system was 0.58. However, the civil justice system scored just 0.26 for “no unreasonable delays”.
Looking at “absence of corruption”, the judiciary was given a score of 0.70, compared with 0.46 for the police/military, 0.44 for the executive branch and 0.26 for the legislative branch.
The 2021 report is the first in the annual series issued since the pandemic began in March 2020 and it shows multiyear negative trends worsening during this period.
“With negative trends in so many countries, this year’s index should be a wake-up call for us all,” said WJP cofounder and chief executive Bill Neukom. “Rule of law is the very foundation for communities enjoying justice, opportunity and peace. Reinforcing that foundation should be a top priority for the coming period of recovery from the pandemic.”
The report shows that globally, 74.2% of countries experienced declines in rule of law performance, while 25.8% improved. For the second year in a row, in every region a majority of countries slipped backward or remained unchanged in their overall rule of law performance.
“Constraints on government powers have weakened and civic space has diminished, opening the door to growing authoritarianism,” warned William Hubbard, the WJP co-founder and chairman.
A full 82% of countries experienced a decline in at least one dimension of civic space (civic participation, freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of assembly and association), while 94% experienced increased delays in administrative, civil or criminal proceedings.
The top three performers overall this year were Denmark, Norway and Finland. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia and Venezuela had the lowest overall rule of law scores.