Amnesty International Global Report (2024): Lowest Number of Countries Carried Out Highest Number of Recorded Executions in a Decade

According to Amnesty International’s Annual Death Penalty Report, 15 coun­tries car­ried out 1,518 known exe­cu­tions in 2024, con­sti­tut­ing the low­est num­ber of exe­cut­ing coun­tries for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year and the high­est record­ed exe­cu­tion fig­ure since 2015, dri­ven by increas­es in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. 46 coun­tries imposed 2,087 new death sen­tences in 2024, a 14% decrease from the pri­or year; how­ev­er, changes in the acces­si­bil­i­ty of infor­ma­tion across coun­tries from make year-to-year com­par­isons dif­fi­cult. The report notes ​“Africa remained the bea­con of hope of abo­li­tion” with Zimbabwe abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty for ordi­nary crimes and Zambia, which ful­ly repealed the death penal­ty in 2023, rat­i­fy­ing the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2024 explains that due to a lack of trans­paren­cy in cer­tain coun­tries, record­ed fig­ures for exe­cu­tions and death sen­tences are a like­ly under­count, with actu­al fig­ures like­ly high­er. Regarded as the world’s lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er, China, which is esti­mat­ed to exe­cute thou­sands annu­al­ly, restricts access to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment fig­ures, as do North Korea and Vietnam. The report notes addi­tion­al dif­fi­cul­ties in con­firm­ing exe­cu­tion and death sen­tence fig­ures for 2024 for Palestine and Syria. 

The 14% decrease in new death sen­tences brought the annu­al fig­ure clos­er to fig­ures seen in 2022. Eight coun­tries which had imposed new death sen­tences in 2023 did not do so in 2024 (Cameroon, Gambia, Guyana, Maldives, Qatar, South Korea, Taiwan and Zimbabwe). South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda imposed new death sen­tences after a hia­tus in 2023. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iraq, Mauritania, Niger, Tunisia, and Yemen all had sig­nif­i­cant increas­es in new death sen­tences imposed in 2024. At the end of 2024, there were at least 28,085 peo­ple under sen­tence of death world­wide, includ­ing 11,667 (42%) in the Asia-Pacific region. 

The 32% increase in record­ed exe­cu­tions glob­al­ly was pri­ma­ry due to region­al increas­es in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, which col­lec­tive­ly account­ed for 91% of world­wide exe­cu­tions. Iran, account­ing for 64% of the total, exe­cut­ed at least 972 peo­ple, a 14% increase from the pri­or year. Saudi Arabia car­ried out at least 345 exe­cu­tions, dou­ble the total in 2023 (at least 172) and mark­ing their high­est record­ed total ever. Iraq exe­cut­ed at least 63 peo­ple, con­sti­tut­ing a four-fold increase from 2023 (at least 16). Egypt, Singapore, and Yemen also expe­ri­enced notable increas­es in exe­cu­tions, while exe­cu­tions decreased slight­ly in Somalia (from 38 to 34 in 2024). 

In its report, Amnesty explains that the use of the death penal­ty in sev­er­al coun­tries con­tin­ues to vio­late inter­na­tion­al law when they involve pub­lic exe­cu­tions, exe­cu­tions of juve­niles or those with men­tal or intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, exe­cu­tions for crimes oth­er than inten­tion­al killing, unfair tri­al pro­ceed­ings, and coerced con­fes­sions obtained under tor­ture or ill-treat­ment. Although drug-relat­ed offens­es do not meet the thresh­old of a ​“most seri­ous” crime, 42% of glob­al exe­cu­tions were for drug-relat­ed offens­es, which were car­ried out in at least four coun­tries (China, Iran, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia). 52% of exe­cu­tions (505) in Iran and 35% of exe­cu­tions (122) in Saudi Arabia were for drug-relat­ed offens­es. In 2024, 13 coun­tries imposed at least 337 new death sen­tences for drug-relat­ed offences. Executions for secu­ri­ty-relat­ed charges were also com­mon in the three nations (Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia) dri­ving the world­wide increase, with coun­tries using the death penal­ty as a ” promi­nent tool…to exert con­trol on the pop­u­la­tion and sti­fle dis­sent.” All known exe­cu­tions in Iraq were for ter­ror­ism-relat­ed charges. Those who chal­lenged the gov­ern­ment through protests were also among those sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed on secu­ri­ty-relat­ed charges in both Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

Commutations or par­dons occurred in 18 coun­tries, and nine exon­er­a­tions occurred in Japan (1), Malaysia (5), and the U.S. (3). Following its abo­li­tion of the manda­to­ry death penal­ty in 2023, Malaysia sub­se­quent­ly reviewed numer­ous cas­es lead­ing to the resen­tenc­ing of more than 1,000 peo­ple in 2024. The notable decrease in death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers in the U.S. was attrib­ut­able to com­mu­ta­tions by President Joe Biden (37) and North Governor Roy Cooper (15).