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Global executions hit nine-year high – Amnesty

An annual report from Amnesty International shows that executions across the world hit their highest figure since 2015 last year. 

Its report on the global use of the death penalty found that 1,518 people had been executed in 15 countries in 2024. 

According to the report, Death Sentences and Executions 2024, the majority of executions were in the Middle East. 

Amnesty added, however, that the number of countries carrying out executions was unchanged from 2023, which was the lowest figure on record. 

Figures exclude China 

The organisation said that the known totals did not include “thousands of people” believed to have been executed in China, which remains the world’s lead executioner, as well as those killed in North Korea and Vietnam, which are also believed to resort to the death penalty extensively. 

Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the overall rise in known executions. In total, the trio accounted for 1,380 recorded executions. 

The Amnesty report says that Iraq almost quadrupled its executions, and Saudi Arabia doubled its yearly total. Iran executed 119 more individuals than last year (from at least 853 to at least 972) – accounting for 64% of all known executions. 

‘Isolated minority’ 

The human-rights organisation found that more than 40% of last year’s executions were carried out unlawfully for drug-related offences, saying that such offences did not meet the threshold required for the death penalty under international law. 

“While secrecy continued to shroud scrutiny in some countries that we believe are responsible for thousands of executions, it’s evident that states that retain the death penalty are an isolated minority,” said Agnès Callamard (Amnesty International’s secretary general).