Kathmandu : Nepal scores first places out of six countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — measured in the South Asia region and third out of 20 among low income countries , the WJP Rule of Law Index of 2018-19 edition, Washington-based World Justice Project stated.

The WJP Rule of Law Index is an evaluation of rule of law adherence worldwide based on more than 120,000 household and 3,800 expert surveys in 126 countries.

Featuring current, original data, the WJP Rule of Law Index measures countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors — constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil Justice, and criminal justice.

Nepal rose two positions for overall rule of law performance and secured the place of 59th among 126 countries.

This change in ranking was calculated by comparing the positions of 113 countries measured in the 2017-2018 edition of the index with the rankings of the same 113 countries in 2019, exclusive of 13 new countries indexed in 2019.

The top three overall performers in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2019 were Denmark (1), Norway (2), and Finland (3); the bottom three were the Democratic Republic of the Congo (124), Cambodia (125), and Venezuela (126).