One country imposed 74% of known executions in 2023

The number of executions carried out around the world reached its highest level in eight years in 2023, largely due to a single country, according to Amnesty International. Although the number of countries with the death penalty fell to a historic low of 16, Amnesty recorded at least 1,153 executions last year, a 30% increase from 2022, the BBC reports. Of these executions, 853 — or 74% — were carried out by the Iranian government. “Iranian authorities have shown complete disregard for human life and have intensified executions for drug-related offenses, further underscoring the discriminatory impact of the death penalty on the most marginalized and vulnerable communities. poor people of Iran,” said Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard. Time.

Executions in Iran jumped 48%, compared to 576 in 2022 and 314 in 2021. Amnesty notes that 20% of death sentences in 2023 were handed down to people belonging to the Baloch ethnic minority, which represents only 5% of population. At least 545 executions allegedly violated international law. Around 50% of these cases involved drug-related charges, for which the death penalty is considered illegal under international human rights law, Amnesty said. China is the country that executes the largest number of executioners in the world, with thousands of people executed each year, according to Amnesty. But it was not included in the report because its numbers are kept secret. “Similarly, Amnesty was unable to provide figures for North Korea and Vietnam, countries believed to have widely used executions,” the report said.

After Iran, Saudi Arabia has the second highest number of executions, with 172, representing 15% of the global total. The United States comes in third place with 24 executions, six more than in 2022. The 2023 toll is the highest in the world since 2015, when at least 1,634 executions took place, according to the BBC. However, the number of countries implementing the death penalty was the lowest to date, with Belarus, Japan, Myanmar and South Sudan refraining from carrying out executions, unlike 2022. The United States are “the only developed Western country where the death penalty still appears in the law”. book,” notes the BBC. “President Biden must stop delaying his promise to abolish the federal death penalty,” Callamard said. (More execution stories.)