And yet, Hellas should show progress state of justice. According to a report published yesterday by an independent international organization World Justice Project (WJP)Despite the fact that this index has been declining for the fifth year in a row worldwide, Greece is among the minority of countries that have increased their overall score this year – even by 1%.

In particular, our country ranks 44th out of 140 countries of the world, having risen four positions in the overall ranking compared to last year. However, at the regional level (in the EU, the European Free Trade Area and North America), Greece ranks 28th out of 31 countries. In first place is Denmark, which also ranks first in the ranking of 140 countries, followed by Norway and Finland.

Queues

The countries with the lowest performance at the regional level are Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Globally, Venezuela, Cambodia, Congo and Haiti have the lowest scores.

The report shows that commitment to the rule of law has weakened in 61% of states. In other words, 4.4 billion people live in countries where the rule of law is weaker than the previous year. “We are emerging from the pandemic, but the global downturn in the rule of law continues,” commented Elisabeth Andersen, CEO of WJP. “At its core, the rule of law is legality, that is, accountability, equal rights, justice. A less fair world is destined to become more unstable,” he added.

Evidence shows that pre-pandemic authoritarian tendencies continue to undermine the rule of law around the world.

The WJP report is based on in-depth personal interviews with more than 154,000 citizens and 3,600 lawyers and technocrats exploring the limits of state power, corruption, open government, basic rights, security, and more. In addition to increased authoritarianism, fundamental rights have also deteriorated in 2/3 of the countries. Control over state power, that is, oversight by the judiciary, the legislature and the media, has also fallen this year to 58% of countries. Justice, mainly due to long delays due to the pandemic, but also due to rising discrimination, has fallen to 61% of countries.

Order and security

Greece performs worst in law enforcement (74 out of 140 countries in the world and 31 out of 31 countries in the region), criminal justice (52/140 and 28/31) and law enforcement (51/140 and 29/31). The improvement in the image of the rule of law in Greece this year follows two years of decline, according to the report. In the 2021 WJP report and in the 2020 report, Greece was in decline.