Amnesty International publishes annual report on the death penalty for 2023 – increased number of executions

In 2023, there were more executions worldwide than in 2015. The number of documented executions increased significantly last year.

According to Amnesty International, it recorded at least 1153 executions in 16 countries in 2023. In the previous year, 2022, the human rights organization counted 883 death sentences carried out. The number of new death sentences imposed worldwide in 2023 also rose by 20 percent to 2428 compared to the previous year.

According to Amnesty International, only a few countries are responsible for the extremely high increase in executions. Almost three quarters (853) were carried out in Iran, an increase of 48% on the previous year (576). These were often drug-related offenses, which should not be punished with the death penalty under international law.

The executions also disproportionately affected the ethnic Baloch minority. Above all, however, the Iranian authorities increasingly used the death penalty to terrify the population and consolidate their power.

The USA (24) and Somalia (38) also carried out more death sentences. According to Amnesty, the number of registered death sentences in sub-Saharan Africa also rose dramatically by 66%, from 298 in 2022 to 494 last year. In Saudi Arabia, the number of executions fell from 196 (2022) to 172, but that was still 15 percent of the death sentences carried out worldwide. Six of those executed were women.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia is also the only country that beheaded people sentenced to death last year. Here, too, death sentences were handed down for crimes such as kidnapping and rape, for which no execution may be carried out under international law.

Further secret executions in China, North Korea and Vietnam can also be assumed. Amnesty International assumes that China still executes the most people in the world, but this is also due to the country’s population density.

At the same time, however, more and more countries are abandoning the cruel practice of capital punishment. In Belarus, Japan, Myanmar and South Sudan, which still carried out death sentences in 2022, no more executions were recorded in 2023. To date, 144 countries have abolished the death penalty by law (112) or in practice (32).

Sources:
Executions worldwide at highest level in almost ten years – press release
Death sentences and executions in 2023 – Report in excerpts
Death sentences and executions in 2023 – Full report