Bangladesh placed 123rd out of 143 countries and jurisdictions in the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index 2026, published on 21 October, a position that leaves it third-lowest in South Asia even though its overall score edged up.

The country's score rose 0.6 per cent to 0.393 out of a possible 1, from 0.391 in 2025, according to the index. That made Bangladesh the 15th-biggest improver in the world and the largest gainer in South Asia, and lifted it two places from 125th. The score is still well below the global average of 0.55.

The ranking puts Bangladesh behind several African economies, including Zimbabwe at 122nd, Nigeria at 120th, Sierra Leone at 110th, Liberia at 103rd, Kenya at 100th and Ghana at 62nd. Within South Asia, Nepal remains the top performer at 71st with a score of 0.52, followed by Sri Lanka at 74th and India at 88th. Bangladesh is ahead of only Pakistan at 131st and Afghanistan at 142nd.

The index scores each country across eight factors. Bangladesh improved in three of them this year: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption and regulatory enforcement. It declined in the other five, including the areas that carry the most weight for ordinary people who deal with courts and the police.

Fundamental rights remained the weakest area, with Bangladesh ranked 133rd and scoring 0.30, placing it among the 11 lowest-ranked countries on that measure. The factor assesses protection of basic rights under international law. Civil justice was the second-weakest, at 132nd with a score of 0.36, and measures whether people can get grievances resolved through the courts.

The country ranked 124th in regulatory enforcement with 0.40 and 117th in criminal justice with 0.32. On absence of corruption, which covers bribery, improper influence and the misuse of public resources, it ranked 113th with 0.35. It was 111th on constraints on government powers with 0.38, and 107th on order and security with 0.63.

Open government was Bangladesh's strongest factor, ranking 106th with a score of 0.41. The measure looks at transparency, accountability mechanisms and whether citizens take part in policy decisions.

The longer trend is less encouraging than the one-year rise. The WJP's country profile shows Bangladesh's overall score down 0.8 per cent between 2021 and 2026, from 0.40 to about 0.39. Six of the eight factors deteriorated over those five years. Civil justice recorded the sharpest fall at 4.2 per cent, followed by open government at 2.8 per cent, fundamental rights at 1.5 per cent, regulatory enforcement at 0.9 per cent, criminal justice at 0.7 per cent and absence of corruption at 0.2 per cent. Only constraints on government powers, up 2.3 per cent, and order and security, up 0.6 per cent, improved.

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, a Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist, attributed part of the deterioration to the law and order situation. "We had expected that an elected government would be able to turn things around to some extent, as the interim government had failed to maintain or restore control over the law and order situation," he said.

"However, the elected government has been trying to bring the entire situation under control at once, and the pressure associated with this has contributed to instability. Law enforcement is also closely linked to the justice system, and our overall performance in these areas has deteriorated," he added.

The 2026 edition drew on data from more than 215,000 households and 3,400 surveys of legal practitioners and experts across 143 countries, collected between February and August this year. Denmark topped the table, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg. Venezuela came last, preceded by Afghanistan, Haiti, Cambodia and Nicaragua.

The WJP also pointed to an association between rule of law scores and economic outcomes. Countries with gross domestic product per capita above the global average of 14,406 dollars scored at least 0.68 on the index, while those with inflation below the global median of 3.23 per cent scored at least 0.60. The project describes this as a link between the rule of law, price stability and economic performance rather than proof that one causes the other.

Several questions remain open. The published reports do not set out the WJP's country-specific explanation for why fundamental rights and civil justice slipped again, beyond the factor scores themselves. Neither report carries a response from the law ministry, the Supreme Court or the attorney general's office, and it is not yet clear whether the government disputes the findings or plans to address them.

Because the index is built from household and expert surveys, part of any year-on-year change can reflect shifts in perception and in how other countries performed, not only changes inside Bangladesh. The country profile gives the five-year picture but does not separate those effects.

What happens next will be watched by lawyers, rights groups and donors who use the index in their own assessments. The WJP is publishing country-level data alongside the global report, and the next edition will show whether this year's small gain holds or turns into a second consecutive improvement. For now the figures describe a legal system that is moving up slightly in a crowded field while remaining among the weakest in its region on the measures that decide how easily people can claim their rights.