Qatar has topped the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2013 for the fifth year in a row.
The index is published by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). This year’s index was announced in London recently.
Qatar occupied the first position among Arab countries and 19th globally, among 162 countries covered by the GPI. Four countries were added to the list this year.
The GPI for this year shows a decline in global peace due to increase in military expenditure and political and security instability in some countries, in addition to a high number of homicides.
Qatar improved its score in some indicators such as corruption (6.8/10) as compared to 2012 (7.2/10) and media freedom (32.9/100) as against (42/100) last year.
The country also maintained high scores in many indicators, such as number of crimes in society, homicides per 100,000 people, number of jailed persons, and ease of access to small arms and light weapons.
Besides holding the first position in the Mena region for five years (2009-2013), Qatar has also performed well at the global level during this period, scoring higher than many developed countries.
According to the GPI, Qatar’s score was 1.398 and 1.395 in 2011 and 2012, respectively; in 2009 and 2010, the score was 1.392 and 1.394, respectively.
These figures reflect the leading position of Qatar as compared to many other countries at the global level, thanks to the efforts made to maintain peace and stability in the country while applying international standards.
The index measures peace according to 24 quantitative and qualitative indicators, based on data from reliable sources.
It consists of internal and external factors such as number of crimes in society, number of internal security officers and police, number of homicides, ease of access to small arms and light weapons, level of organised conflict (internal), likelihood of violent demonstrations, level of violent crime, political instability, level of disrespect for human rights (political terror scale), relations with neighbouring countries and number of deaths from organised conflict (internal).
The countries are assessed on a 1-5 scale.
The country that is peaceful will get a score of 1 while the least peaceful will get 5.
http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/356423/qatar-tops-mena-region-in-global-peace-index-2013
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