The number of state executions in the world has reached its highest level in ten years, said a new Amnesty International report.
More than 1,500 recorded executions took place in 2024 with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia representing a handset of 1,380 and the United States for 25, the charitable organization noted.
Despite this increase, the report also revealed that the total number of countries carrying out the death penalty amounted to 15 – the lowest number ever recorded for the second consecutive year.
The secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, said that “the tide turns out” on the capital punishment, adding that “it is only a matter of time until the world is free from the shadow of the gallows”.
Although these figures have been the highest as they have been since 2015 – while at least 1,634 people have been subjected to the death penalty – the real overall figure is probably higher.
Amnesty International says that the figure does not include those killed in China, which, according to her, performs thousands of executions each year. North Korea and Vietnam are not included either.
The data on the use of the death penalty are classified as a state secret in China and Vietnam, which means that the charity has not been able to access the statistics.
Other obstacles, such as restrictive state practices or current crises in Gaza and Syria, meant that little or no information was available for these areas.
The report, entitled Death Sentpending and Executions 2024, cited that Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the overall increase in known executions.
Iraq almost quadrupled its executions from at least 16 to at least 63, while Saudi Arabia has doubled its annual total from 172 to at least 345.
Iran executions increased from at least 853 in 2023 to at least 972 in 2024.
The report also indicates that the two main reasons for the tip in the use of capital punishment were due to “the armed countries the death penalty against the demonstrators” and for “drug -related crimes”.
The charitable organization noted that more than 40% of executions in 2024 were made for drug -related offenses, which, according to her, were illegal under human rights law.
In 2024, Zimbabwe signed a bill which abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes and, since September 2024, the world has seen two cases where the prisoners of the corridor of Japan and the United States were acquitted and granted respectively.
The charitable organization also said that more than two -thirds of all UN member states voted for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty last year.
