The World Justice Project (WJP), an international organization, recently published its 2024 Rule of Law Index.
This index assesses compliance with basic principles such as accountability, transparency and fairness in the administration of justice in 142 countries around the world.
Tunisia ranks 4th in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, with an overall score of 0.50, and 79th in the world.
Tunisia stands out for its strong performance in two areas where it ranks first in the region: Open Government and Fundamental Rights.
For open governance, it scored 0.46, the best in the region, while for fundamental rights it scored 0.48, also the highest.
However, several other countries in the MENA region outperform Tunisia on other important criteria. For example, Tunisia is ahead in terms of Constraints on Government Powers (score of 0.51, 4th in the region), Absence of Corruption (score of 0.47, 4th), Order and Security (score of 0.72, 5th) and the Regulatory Enforcement (score of 0.49, 6th).
Finally, it scored 0.49 for civil justice (7th) and 0.41 for Criminal Justice (5th).
Elsewhere in the MENA region, the United Arab Emirates ranked first with an overall score of 0.64, followed by Kuwait (0.58) and Jordan (0.55).
After Tunisia, Algeria ranks 5th with an overall score of 0.49, while Morocco scores 0.48. Lebanon (0.44), Iran (0.39) and Egypt (0.35) close the gap.
Globally, the top 5 countries in the 2024 Rule of Law Index are dominated by the Nordic countries, which have long been models of governance and respect for the rule of law.
Denmark is the best performing country in the world with an overall score of 0.90, followed by Norway (0.89), Finland (0.87), Sweden (0.83) and Germany (0.83).
The Rule of Law Index is based on two sources of data: a general population survey (GPP) conducted by local firms with a sample of 1,000 respondents per country, and questionnaires completed by legal practitioners and experts in areas such as civil law, constitutional law, civil liberties, criminal law, labor law and public health.
