Child receiving a vaccination
Flickr/DFAT under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0

A new paper published by BMJ Open explores whether “the rule of law is a foundational determinant of health that underlies other socioeconomic, political and cultural factors that have been associated with health outcomes.”

 

The authors—Angela Maria Pinzon-Rondon, Amir Attaran, Juan Carlos Botero (executive director of the World Justice Project), and Angela Maria Ruiz-Sternberg—examined WJP Rule of Law Index scores for 96 countries against several key health indicators.

What did they find?

“The rule of law showed an independent association with infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, life expectancy, and cardiovascular disease and diabetes mortality rate, after adjusting for the countries’ level of per capita income, their expenditures in health, their level of political and civil freedom, their Gini measure of inequality and women’s status ( p<0.05). Rule of law remained significant in all the multivariate models, and the following adjustment for potential confounders remained robust for at least one or more of the health outcomes across all eight subindices of the rule of law. Findings show that the higher the country’s level of adherence to the rule of law, the better the health of the population.”

Of course, as the authors note, correlation is not causation. But even so, the paper demonstrates a statistically significant, robust correlation between the rule of law and a country’s health.

“We find that a country’s adherence to the rule of law is strikingly well correlated with its overall national public health status,” state the authors, “which suggests that the quality of institutions prevails over much else.” 

Read the full paper:  http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/10/e007004.abstract

 

WJP Staff
title bar

Read More

title bar

Strengthening Equal Rights and Non-Discrimination at the World Justice Forum 2022 and Beyond

In recent years equal rights and non-discrimination protections have weakened, putting at-risk groups in danger of further erasure and marginalization. The 2022 WJP Rule of Law Index points to a rise in discrimination during the pandemic, with 70% of countries and jurisdictions having declined in equal treatment and absence of discrimination. Vulnerable groups already exposed to systemic inequality—such as the LGBTQI+ community, children with disabilities, women, and ethnic and racial minorities—were further marginalized during the crisis, and continue to be left out of solutions to “build back better.” At the World Justice Forum 2022, equal rights leaders, activists, and academics came together to discuss the increasing challenges these groups face, as well as promising solutions to address them.

Read More

How Data Drives Justice Around the World: Hear from Leaders Who Use the WJP Rule of Law Index

Every year, the WJP Rule of Law Index takes a detailed look at adherence to rule of law principles around the world. This year’s Index covers 140 countries and jurisdictions and contains data on eight factors that make up the rule of law, including fundamental rights, absence of corruption, and criminal justice.   Insights from the 2022 WJP Rule of Law Index show that adherence to rule of law fell in 61% of countries this year. Globally, this means that 4.4 billion people live in countries where rule of law has declined over the past year.   Rule of law impacts our rights, our safety, our well-being, and our access to justice. The WJP Rule of Law Index provides original data annually on people’s experiences with and perceptions of rule of law in 140 countries and jurisdictions around the world, making the Index a valuable resource for policymakers, business leaders, and advocates. 

Read More

WJP Rule of Law Index 2022 Global Press Release

WASHINGTON (Oct. 26, 2022) – For the fifth year in a row, the rule of law has declined globally, according to the 2022 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index®. The World Justice Project’s analysis of in-depth survey data in 140 countries and jurisdictions shows that adherence to the rule of law fell in 61% of countries this year.

Read More