Sri Lanka experienced the greatest improvement in its overall peacefulness following the ending of decades of civil war, according to the 2012 Global Peace Index released today.
Sri Lanka is ranked 103 overall and 17 in the Asia Pacific region, ahead of India (142), Pakistan (149) and Thailand (129).
Sri Lanka joins Philippines, Zimbabwe, Bhutan and Guyana in the list of top 5 countries that registered “improvements in peacefulness” in the 2012 Global Peace Index.
Sri Lanka’s score improved markedly for the second successive year in the aftermath of the defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the ending of war in May 2009. From 2011 to 2012 Sri Lanka had jumped 27 places in the list, prepared by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
“The GPI indicator of the number of deaths from organised (internal) conflict fell sharply in response to the fact that there were no casualties in 2010, compared with 15,565 in 2009. There were related declines in the homicide rate, the frequency of terrorist acts and the Political Terror Scale,” it said.
The level of internal conflict nevertheless remains “moderate”, reflecting signs of intermittent violence and reports of continued abductions and disappearances, including two cases in the northern city of Jaffna in December 2011, the Institute for Economics and Peace says.
“Military expenditure declined in 2011 as a proportion of GDP amid pressures to cut the country’s deficit. Nevertheless, a rise in defence spending appears likely in 2012, justified by security officials to repay loans on military hardware acquired to fight the Tamil Tigers.”
The 2012 GPI is the sixth edition of the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness and ranks 158 nations using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators which gauge ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization.
Iceland (1), Denmark (2), New Zealand (2) and Canada (4) enjoy the distinction of being in the list of 10 “most at peace” countries in the world while Somalia (158), Afghanistan (157) and Sudan(156) are rated as “least at peace” by the Institute.
