India ranks low at 141 in
this year’s ( 2013 ) Global Peace Index (GPI)
that measured peace in 162
countries, according to 22 qualitative and
quantitative indicators of the absence and fear
of violence.
The major indicators that
bring down India’s ranking are militarisation, domestic
and international conflicts, and corruption.
However, despite an
increase in military expenditure, India made positive gains in its level of
peace after reductions in deaths from internal conflict and the level of
perceived criminality in society, according to the 7th edition of the annual
GPI released on Tuesday.
In the South
Asian region, Sri Lanka is one notch
above India at rank four while Bhutan
is the most peaceful country. It is followed by Nepal,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in
that order.
Globally, a dramatic rise
in the number of homicides and 59 more countries increasing their military
expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product were
the key drivers in making the world a less peaceful place, according to the
2013 GPI.
This year’s findings
underline a six-year trend showing a deterioration of five per cent in global
peace. In this time, 110 countries have seen their score deteriorate while only
48 became more peaceful. The economic impact of this five per cent loss in
peace came at a cost to the global economy of $473 billion last year.
RISE IN HOMICIDES
The sharp increase in the
number of homicides — up eight per cent over the last year — can be almost
entirely attributed to Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa with, for example,
the homicide rate in Honduras further increasing by almost 10 per 100,000
people — becoming the highest in the world at 92 homicides per 100,000 people.
Steve Killelea, founder
and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics
and Peace (IEP), said: “The
migration of populations to urban areas in developing countries has been a key
driver in the rise of homicides worldwide. This has also led to an increase in
violent crime. It is essential for the police to gain the trust of those living
in city slums; to achieve this, addressing police corruption would be a first
important step.”
The overall deterioration
of the military spending indicator in the GPI is primarily due to a large
number of low-middle income countries, typically authoritarian regimes like
Iran, Iraq, Oman, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire and Democratic
Republic of the Congo having increased their expenditure to more than seven per
cent of GDP.
In contrast, some slight
improvements were evident over the last year on the indicators of the
likelihood of violent demonstrations and the Political Terror Scale, a measure
of State-sponsored terror, with improvements in countries such as Kenya, Kyrgyz
Republic, Zambia, and Tunisia.
Syria’s descent into
civil war recorded the greatest score deterioration in the history of the
Index. Additionally, many Middle Eastern and North African countries continue
to be affected by the fallout from the Arab Spring with violent demonstrations
and further political instability.
The data also revealed
evidence of countries being able to make significant gains in peace. Libya, for
example, experienced the greatest rise in peace as its newly elected government
and recovering institutions were established following the turmoil of the
recent revolution and civil war. North Africa also had more to celebrate as
Sudan and Chad experienced the second and third most substantial gains as their
respective conflicts eased.
Europe
remains the most peaceful region comprising 13 of the top
20 countries, including Iceland, which continues
to rank first. However, several high debt countries
including Spain, Greece, France and Portugal experienced less peaceful
conditions amid challenging economic circumstances during the last year.
This also reflects the
six-year trend data, which shows that countries that suffer from recession
decrease in peace at a greater rate than the rest of the world.
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