The International Human Rights Defense Organization, however, that this number, the highest of executions since 2015, does not include thousands of people believed to have been which remains the main country in the world to execute people, nor records of North Korea or Vietnam.
In its annual report on the application of the worldwide death penalty, published on Tuesday, amnesty International also indicates that e They prevented the confirmation of a final global number that can therefore be much higher.
Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia responsible for 91% of executions by death penalty
Based on the data confirmed by the organization, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounted for 91% of executions by death penalty registered, and there was an increase in executions related to accusations linked to the drug world, in violation of human rights.
According to the report “Death Penalty in 2024”, only these three countries performed 1,380 people, with Iraq almost quadrupling the number – from 16 to 63 – and Saudi Arabia doubled, from 172 executed in 2023 to at least 345 last year.
No the number also rose from 853 to 972, that is, almost two thirds of all known executions in the world.
“The death penalty is an abominable crime that has no place in today’s world,” says the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, cited in the document.
States that keep the death penalty “are an isolated minority”
However, although “secretism has continued to cover scrutiny in some countries that we believe, they are responsible for thousands of executions, it is evident that states that keep the death penalty are an isolated minority,” he says.
“With only 15 countries to carry out executions in 2024, the lowest number of which there is registration, for the second year in a row” is a “removal of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” says Agnès Callamard.
The five countries with the largest number of executions recorded in 2024 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen.
United States register an increase in executions
But the United States has also registered a constant tendency to increase executions25 people have been executed since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) admits that the number can increase even more this year, as the newly elected president, Donald Trump, has As a tool to protect people “from violent violators, killers and monsters.”
“His dehumanizing comments have promoted a false narrative that the death penalty has a unique determining effect on crime,” laments amnesty International.
Death penalty used in Iran and Saudi Arabia to “silence brave people who manifest themselves”
AI denounces that, in the Middle East, death sentences have also been used to silence human rights defenders, dissidents, protesters, political opponents and ethnic minorities.
“Those who dare to challenge authorities face the most cruel punishments, especially in Iran and Saudi Arabia, where the death penalty is used to silence the brave who manifest,” says Agnès Callamard.
According to the report for 2024, “two of these people – including a young man with a mental disability – were executed, following unjust judgments and ‘confessions’ contaminated by torture, which proves to what extent the authorities are willing to reinforce their control of power.”
Likewise, the Saudi authorities continued to use the death penalty as a weapon to silence political dissent and punish the citizens of the Shiite minority who supported the “former statement” protests between 2011 and 2013.
Amnesty International also underlines that the Democratic Republic of Congo showed intention to resume executions, while Burkina Faso military authorities announced plans to reintroduce the death penalty for common crimes.
“Condemning death for drug -related offenses has no effect on reducing trafficking”
In the report presented on Tuesday, the Human Rights Defense Organization also denounces an abuse regarding the reasons invoked for the death penalties.
“More than 40% of 2024 executions were illegally carried out for drug -related crimes. According to international human rights legislation and the death penalty, the most serious crimes should be limited,” Amnesty International recalls.
“The drug -related executions prevailed in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and, although it was not possible to confirm, probably in Vietname,” says Agnès Callamard.
“Death to death for drug -related offenses have had a disproportionate impact on people of disadvantaged means, but has no proven effect on reducing drug trafficking.”
On the other hand, and although an increase in the number of executions has been registered, the amnesty accounts for only 15 countries that performed them, which is the lowest number that there is registration for the second consecutive year.
Belarus remains the only European country to apply the death penalty
Currently, 113 countries are totally abolished and 145 in total have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.
In regional terms, Asia Pacific has continued to be the region with the largest number of executions in the world, where five countries (Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Singapore and Vietname) performed executions in 2024, yet the number of executors, as Bangladesh has not fulfilled any death sentence last year since 2018.
On the American continent, the United States were, for the 16th consecutive year, the only country to execute people, but Trinidad and Tobago also imposed death sentences.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the number of registered executions grew 34%, from 1,073 by 2023 to 1,442 in 2024. In total, eight countries in the region were known to have executed in 2024: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen.
Finally, in sub -Saharan Africa, executions and convictions to death registered decreased about 10% and, for the second year in a row, Somalia was the only country in the region where capital penalty was known, with at least 34 registered executions.
