Qatar is the safest country in the world, according to 2020 mid-year Crime Index by Numbeo, the world’s largest user-contributed database on cities and countries. 

For the second consecutive year, Qatar has been named the safest country in the world by Numbeo in their annual Crime Index. This year, 133 countries have been included in the ranking.

This is the third time Qatar has taken the title as the world’s safest country on Numbeo – first in 2017, then again in 2019. Qatar has been the safest Arab country since 2015.

According to the Ministry of Interior (MOI), Qatar’s outstanding record during the period is considered as an extension of its achievements since 2015-2019, maintaining the number one position in the Arab world. In as statement, MOI said, ‘It reflects the constant and outstanding level of security and safety enjoyed by the country, and the significant decrease in the rates of crimes.’

According to the classification rules of the report, countries are ranked in reverse order – Qatar ranked 133 in crime rate by registering the lowest crime rate with 11.80 points out of 100. In the Safety Index, Qatar ranked first by scoring 88.20 points out of 100. Qatar has been rated low and very low for crimes such as home break-ins and home theft, mugging and robbery, car theft, property crimes such as vandalism and theft, drug use or dealing, violent crimes such as assault and armed robbery, corruption and bribery, and being subject to a physical attack because of your skin colour, ethnic origin, gender or religion.

The Numbeo database has been publishing annual reports since 2009, based on crime rates in the countries of the world. The Crime index is measured according to the laws of the countries, as there are acts that constitute crimes in some countries while they are not deemed crimes in some others, which gives a real measure of the crime rate in countries in accordance with applicable laws.

The report also takes into account the different types of crimes and their classification according to the laws on crimes, offences and violations. The indicators also depend on a set of standards related to the rates of crime and violence such as murder, terrorism, the cost of crime and other standards.

Doha Declaration

In July 2020, Qatar confirmed that the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration issued by the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015, has proven its effectiveness and achieved the highest possible outcome in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This came in a speech of Qatar, delivered by the ambassador of Qatar to the Federal Republic of Austria and the permanent representative of Qatar to the UN and international organisations in Vienna, Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri, via video conference in July 2020 during the meeting of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna on the activities of the global programme under the slogan ‘Transforming Policies into Actions’.

According to Al Mansouri, the member states of the UN unanimously adopted the Doha Declaration a few months before the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Doha Declaration had its forward-looking vision in support of this plan and its emphasis on seeking to implement comprehensive policies and programmes that promote socio-economic development and provide support to other member states in their endeavours to this end.

The implementation of the UN’s sustainable development agenda in 2016 began during the same year of the launch of the Doha Declaration Global Programme which is funded by Qatar, the largest funding programme provided by one country in the history of the UN Office.

This synchronisation confirms the foresight of the political leadership of Qatar and its belief in global solidarity when it decided to transform the Doha Declaration and the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into action programmes for community prosperity and the promotion of world peace.

He reviewed the achievements of the global programme during the past five years, and said that the sustainable development plan pledged to ensure no one will be left behind, and the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration, achieved this goal in a practical way when it reached about 2 mn people from 192 countries, and more than 55,000 people benefitted from more than 500 activities of support and capacity building activities, most of them from developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The programme still has time to achieve more goals. 

Al Mansouri added that although the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration achieved many goals contained in Goal 16, which falls within the mandate of the UNODC, the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 169 goals are integrated and indivisible goals with the aim of achieving a balance between the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, the social and the environmental dimensions. Therefore, the global programme has comprehensively contributed to the implementation of all the goals of the sustainable development plan.

Al Mansouri affirmed the commitment of Qatar to continue working with the UNODC to build on the achievements of the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration and to continue to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels.

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