Rule of Law Index 2025 report flawed – MOPA&G

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance (MOPA&G) has rejected the accuracy of the recently released World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2025, stating that the report’s methodology is deeply flawed and “cannot be construed as a real reflection of Guyana’s 2025 realities.”

According to the report, Guyana ranked 80th in 2025, a slight decline from 78th in 2024. However, the Ministry stressed that the methodology underpinning this ranking is deeply flawed. The data used includes household polling conducted between 2018 and 2022 by the StatMark Group, a firm whose surveys were neither made public nor independently verified.

“The 2025 report, without question, relies on older datasets, including household polling data which originates from 2018 and 2022 by the StatMark Group,” the Ministry stated. “Of note, neither of these face-to-face surveys was ever made public at the time, nor does the public know of the StatMark Group.”

It added that by the WJP’s own acknowledgement, “where rule of law is stronger, so is the economy.” In this regard, the Ministry pointed out that Guyana’s rapid economic growth – as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world – is a living example of strong rule of law and institutional integrity.

In a statement issued by the Ministry on Thursday, it was noted that while Guyana values mechanisms that facilitate comparative global reviews on governance, anti-corruption, and human rights, the 2025 Index relies heavily on outdated and opaque data sources that do not accurately capture the country’s ongoing institutional reforms and current realities.

The Ministry emphasised that Guyana remains committed to international transparency and accountability frameworks, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Inter-American Convention against Corruption through the MESICIC, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), and other mechanisms of the UN and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Ministry therefore underscored that the WJP’s conclusions do not align with Guyana’s current progress. “The report cannot be construed as a real reflection of Guyana’s 2025 realities, particularly given ongoing institutional and legislative reforms across governance and justice sectors after 2022, and certainly since 2018,” it declared.

Further, MOPA&G urged both the media and the public to consult official data sources and to exercise critical analysis when interpreting or reproducing third-party publications. The Ministry cautioned that while rankings may make for attractive headlines, they lack analytical value if not accompanied by nominal scores and underlying datasets.

“The absence of detailed nominal values for the sub-factors limits the analytical value of the rankings, especially in the context of informing policy application and public understanding,” the statement said.

The Ministry also questioned the transparency of the “expert perception” component of the Index, pointing out that the identities and credentials of most contributors were not disclosed. “It cannot be that the perceptions of a few anonymous people are considered representative of the entire population of approximately 800,000,” it stated. “Without more rigorous sampling parameters, it is indeed difficult to validate the robustness or representativeness of the findings.”

While reaffirming Guyana’s openness to engagement with international partners and monitoring mechanisms – evidenced by recent large-scale reviews under UNCAC and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR – the Ministry maintained that credible assessments must be grounded in current, transparent, and verifiable data.

“The Government continues to underscore the necessity for continuous scrutiny of methodologies, transparent disclosure of sample sizes, and timely updating of datasets to ensure that global indices accurately portray current conditions, particularly for countries in the global south,” the statement said.