Justice secretary brushes off international body’s lowered rule of law ranking for Hong Kong
- Hong Kong slips three places to 22nd out of 140 in international ranking for rule of law, but justice secretary blames bias
- City’s strong showing in ‘absence of corruption’ and ‘order and security’ highlighted by government
Hong Kong’s justice minister has maintained that the city is still in a good place in terms of law and order and its ability to stamp out corruption despite sliding three spots in the latest global ranking for rule of law.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok also brushed aside concerns over the city’s human rights situation on Thursday, a day after the non-governmental World Justice Project ranked Hong Kong at 22nd, down from 19th last year.
The independent body, with offices in America, Singapore and Mexico and with a mission to promote the rule of law, examined 140 jurisdictions for the report.
Lam insisted the lowered score the city was given for human rights was because of biased perceptions.
“We all know what kind of attacks the outside world has been launching at Hong Kong,” Lam said on Thursday.
The organisation gave Hong Kong a rating of 0.73, the lowest since it started to list the city in 2015, with 1 being the best. The city hovered around 0.76 to 0.77 in previous years.
“We can’t just take a simplistic view. Is there a huge difference between the 19th and 22nd place when there are 140 jurisdictions involved?” Lam asked.