Afghanistan tops atlas of impunity ranking
Photo: The Atlas of Impunity

Afghanistan tops the Atlas of Impunity ranking

According to the Atlas of Impunity index, released on Sunday by the Eurasia Group and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Afghanistan has the most unaccountable government in the world.

Built on 67 statistical indicators and drawn from 29 validated sources, the Atlas of Impunity has tracked abuses of power by governments around the world and ranked them across five governance dimensions: 

  • Unaccountable governance – Respect for the rule of law and responsiveness to citizens 
  • Abuse of human rights – Adherence to international human rights treaties and use of violence for political coercion
  • Economic exploitation – Corruption, poor treatment of workers, and relationship between economic status and civil and political liberties
  •  Conflict and violence – Participation in conflict abroad and levels of violence within a country
  • Environmental degradation—Contribution to the climate crisis, resource depletion, and pollution 

Each country has been given scores of 0 to 5, based on their performances on the five dimensions of study, meaning the higher the score, the worse the country is positioned. 

Afghanistan has scored the highest in Unaccountable governance, Conflict and violence and Abuse of human rights with 5, 5 and 4.18 marks. And in Economic exploitation and Environmental degradation the country is ranked 17th and 25th with scores of 3.23 and 3.72.

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With a total score of 4.25, Afghanistan stands on top of the world ranking, followed by Syria and Yemen. 

And at the bottom of the ranking, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden with scores of 0.29, 0.35 and 0.43 respectively have performed best.  

The former British foreign secretary, David Miliband and the chair of the advisory council for the Atlas of Impunity, said that “Impunity is the exercise of power without accountability, which becomes, in starkest form, the commission of crimes without punishment.”