Executions surge globally to highest level since 2015: Amnesty International

The number of recorded executions worldwide rose to the highest level in a decade in 2024, according to Amnesty International, BBC reported. 

In its Death Sentences and Executions 2024 report, the human rights group said at least 1,500 people were executed last year—the most since 2015.

Three countries were primarily responsible for the increase: Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which together accounted for at least 1,380 executions. The United States carried out 25.

Despite this rise, the number of countries known to have executed people dropped to 15—the lowest ever recorded, and unchanged from 2023.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General, said: “The tide is turning on capital punishment... it is only a matter of time until the world is free from the shadow of the gallows.”

The report highlights major increases in Iran, where executions jumped from 853 in 2023 to 972 last year; Iraq, which saw a rise from 16 to 63; and Saudi Arabia, which doubled its tally from 172 to 345.

Amnesty warned that over 40% of the global executions in 2024 were for drug-related crimes—something it says breaches international human rights law. The organisation also raised alarm over governments using the death penalty as a political tool to target protesters.

The true global figure is likely much higher, the report noted, due to lack of access to reliable data from countries like China, North Korea and Vietnam. In China and Vietnam, execution data is classified as a state secret.

Conflict zones and highly controlled states, including Gaza and Syria, also pose barriers to collecting accurate figures.

There were positive signs too. Zimbabwe passed legislation in 2024 to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes. Amnesty also noted cases of death row inmates receiving clemency in Japan and the US.

More than two-thirds of UN member states voted in favour of a moratorium on the death penalty last year, bolstering international momentum against capital punishment.