Phnom Penh: A report from the World Justice Project (WJP) has ranked Cambodia 138 out of 139 countries in its 2021 Rule of Law Index. The country ranked between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela, which was in last position. Denmark, Norway and Finland ranked the top three countries in the list, but Ministry of Justice spokesman, Chin Malin, has dismissed the report and said the ranking “doesn’t reflect the reality”.

According to WJP, the Rule of Law Index had researched more than 138,000 families and over 4,200 legal officials around the world. It has stated that the rule of law in countries around the world has deteriorated across the world during the pandemic, but Malin believes the reason Cambodia was left in the second last position was due to criticism of how Cambodia implemented its Covid-19-related laws, even though he says every country has eventually had to enforce many measures and even stricter ones than what have been enforced in Cambodia, such as lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations.

He says, “Therefore, downgrading Cambodia and making the country worse than others is unreasonable. The ranking should be based on other sources or data such as from civil society or an opposition group otherwise there could be a wrong result.”