Entries by Nina Motazedi

October 10, 2023 marked the 21^st World Day Against the Death Penalty. Regarding this year’s theme, “The Death Penalty, an Irreversible Torture,” Raphaël Chenuil Hazan, executive director of France-based abolitionist group EPCM, said “Today, we no longer need to demonstrate to anyone that the death penalty is a sophisticated form of torture, both in the phase of sentencing or investigation (where physical and psychological torture is often used to obtain confessions), where the elements of a…

On July 25, 2023, Ghana’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. Although the death penalty would remain in the constitution for acts of treason, the new law would remove the death penalty as possible punishment for murder, genocide, piracy, and smuggling. The current 176 death row prisoners, including six women, would have their sentences commuted to life in prison. Last year seven people were sentenced to death despite Ghana not having carried out an execution since 1993. The…

A total of 68 executions have occurred in Saudi Arabia this year, with more than 20 executions relating to terrorism charges occurring since early May, according to Agence France-Presse. On July 3, five men, including one Egyptian national, were executed for a deadly attack on a house of worship in the Al-Ahsa governorate, resulting in five dead and several injured. On June 25, two Yemeni nationals were executed on terrorism charges, and on June 12, three Saudi men were executed for the killing…

On March 23, Zimbabwe’s parliament passed a new “Patriotic Bill” which carries the possibility of a death sentence for non-violent crimes in violation of the “most serious crimes” international legal standard. The law will punish citizens whose activities “willfully damage the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe,” including boycotts, sanctions, and any act considered “subversion” by the state. Depending on the offense, punishments include a loss of citizenship, heavy fines…

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s (pictured) decision to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 on May 29 has drawn widespread international criticism. The new law prescribes that people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality” may now be punished with a death sentence. Although same-sex relationships were already illegal in the country, the new law, which passed with the support of 341 out of 389 members of parliament, includes harsher punishments for “promoting” homosexuality and engaging in…

Iran continues to use the death penalty in violation of international law, including death sentences for crimes failing to meet the “most serious” crime threshold, the use of torture, and performing public executions. According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 277 executions thus far in 2023, with at least 106 executions in the first 20 days of May, constituting the “bloodiest month” in more than five years. “What we’re witnessing in Iran are not executions, but…

According to an annual death penalty report by Amnesty International, 2022 saw the highest number of recorded executions since 2017, primarily due to increases in just a handful of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The report also noted a slight decrease in the number of newly imposed death sentences worldwide. In its report, Amnesty says use of the death penalty in several countries continues to violate international law with public executions, executions of juveniles or those…