Worldwide Monthly Roundup: Abolition in Zimbabwe, Global Moratorium Gains Support; Known Executions Rise in Limited Number of Countries

Highlights 

Progress towards glob­al abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty con­tin­ues with Zimbabwe’s end-2024 deci­sion to near­ly elim­i­nate the prac­tice, only pre­serv­ing the right to impose death when the coun­try is under a declared pub­lic emer­gency. Zimbabwe’s last exe­cu­tion was in 2005. 

The bien­ni­al United Nations General Assembly Resolution on a Moratorium on the Death Penalty, passed with a record 130 votes on December 17, 2024. Nine coun­tries that had either abstained, vot­ed against, or not vot­ed in 2022 vot­ed to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion in 2024. Two coun­tries, Mauritania and Papua New Guinea, vot­ed against the Moratorium in 2024 after abstain­ing in 2022. The num­ber of coun­tries oppos­ing the mora­to­ri­um dropped from 37 in 2022 to 32 in 2024.

Despite these glob­al trends, known¹ exe­cu­tions in 2024² increased, dri­ven by Iran and Saudi Arabia. More than half (486 of 938³) of the known exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Iran were for drug-relat­ed offens­es. The num­ber of exe­cu­tions in Saudi Arabis in 2024 (345) was more than dou­ble that of 2023 (172) and, like in Iran, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber exe­cut­ed (122) were for drug-related charges.

Zimbabwe Abolishes the Death Penalty 

On December 31, 2024, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Death Penalty Abolition Bill into law, abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and man­dat­ing the resen­tenc­ing of the approx­i­mate­ly 60 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers to terms of life or less by the country’s High Court.

The law is not absolute: it allows for the tem­po­rary rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty dur­ing states of pub­lic emer­gency. Amnesty International Zimbabwe Executive Director Lucia Masuka praised the deci­sion as ​“a major step towards align­ing [Zimbabwe’s] laws with inter­na­tion­al human rights standard[s],” but expressed regret at the pub­lic emer­gen­cies excep­tion and called on the nation to move towards ​“full abo­li­tion.” According to Amnesty, 24 African coun­tries have ful­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty, includ­ing four since 2020 (Chad, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and Zambia). Recently, sev­er­al oth­ers (Kenya, Liberia, Gambia, and Ghana) have tak­en pos­i­tive steps towards abolition.

President Mnangagwa, who him­self was pre­vi­ous­ly sen­tenced to death for blow­ing up a train dur­ing the nation’s war of inde­pen­dence in the 1960s, has pub­licly opposed the death penal­ty since 2017. In 2018, he com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of those who had spent more than 10 years on death row. On April 18, 2024, he grant­ed clemen­cy to 4,000 pris­on­ers in hon­or of 44 years of inde­pen­dence; among those freed were some of those death sen­tenced pris­on­ers whose death sen­tences had pre­vi­ous­ly com­mut­ed and who had already served at least 20 years.

2024 UN Death Penalty Moratorium Resolution Passes With Record Support

The bien­ni­al UN res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a glob­al mor­tar­i­um on the use of the death penal­ty passed on December 17, 2024, with a record 130 votes. Morocco, Antigua and Barbuda, Kenya, and Zambia vot­ed in favor of the mora­to­ri­um for the first time, reflect­ing steady advances and active dia­logues towards abo­li­tion at nation­al lev­el. ​“The unprece­dent­ed sup­port for this res­o­lu­tion shows that the glob­al jour­ney towards abo­li­tion is unstop­pable,” said Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International’s death penal­ty expert. ​“These res­o­lu­tions car­ry con­sid­er­able moral and polit­i­cal weight, ensur­ing that the way in which this cru­el pun­ish­ment is used will con­tin­ue to be scru­ti­nized.” Ms. Sangiorgio also expressed regret at an amend­ment to the res­o­lu­tion reaf­firm­ing states’ sov­er­eign right to pre­scribe their own pun­ish­ments. ​“This lan­guage must be reject­ed as a mat­ter of pri­or­i­ty, as it weak­ens the spir­it of UN res­o­lu­tions as the stan­dard to aspire to and has the only inten­tion of stymieing human rights progress on an issue as impor­tant as the death penal­ty,” she said.

Morocco Votes in Favor of Global Death Penalty Moratorium 

Morocco’s 2024 vote in favor if the UN glob­al mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty fol­lowed 17 years of absten­tions. The move was char­ac­ter­ized as a ​“his­toric mile­stone” by Amina Bouayach, pres­i­dent of Morocco’s National Human Rights Council (CNDH). ​“The vote is a cru­cial step, but it must lead to bold leg­isla­tive reforms that per­ma­nent­ly anchor this progress with­in our nation­al legal frame­work,” she said in a speech fol­low­ing the vote. According to Morocco World News, the nation last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 1993, and there are cur­rent­ly 88 indi­vid­u­als on Morocco’s death row. Of the 57 mem­ber states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, of which Morocco is a mem­ber, 33 have either abol­ished the death penal­ty or observe a de facto moratorium. 

Iran Executes At Least 938 in 2024 

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) has iden­ti­fied at least 938 exe­cu­tions in Iran in 2024, but the final count has not yet been deter­mined due to a lack of trans­paren­cy in report­ing. This marks an increase from the 811 exe­cu­tions the orga­ni­za­tion iden­ti­fied in 2023. Minority groups, such as Baluch (100 exe­cut­ed) and Kurds (100 exe­cut­ed) con­tin­ue to be over­rep­re­sent­ed, as well as Afghan nation­als (77 exe­cut­ed). Executions for non-seri­ous offens­es rep­re­sent­ed a major­i­ty, with more than half for drug-relat­ed offens­es (486) and anoth­er 19 on secu­ri­ty-relat­ed charges (moharabeh/­mofsed-e-filarz), often used as a polit­i­cal tool. Retribution-in-kind, or qisas, for mur­der result­ed in 399 exe­cu­tions. Iran was one of a hand­ful of nations to car­ry out pub­lic exe­cu­tions (4 in 2024). There were six indi­vid­u­als exe­cut­ed for offens­es com­mit­ted as juve­niles, includ­ing one woman; in total, at least 29 women were exe­cut­ed in 2024, accord­ing to ABC. 

On January 7, 2025, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called the increase in exe­cu­tions in Iran ​“deeply dis­turb­ing.” In his state­ment, he crit­i­cized the use of the death penal­ty for drug-relat­ed offens­es and against polit­i­cal dis­si­dents, specif­i­cal­ly those involved in the 2022 ​“Women, Life, Freedom” protests. ​“It is high time Iran stemmed this ever-swelling tide of exe­cu­tions,” said Commissioner Türk. 

On January 6, 2025, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) report­ed that 2024 saw the high­est num­ber of women exe­cut­ed in 17 years (31). According to IHRNGO, from 2010 to 2024, there were at least 241 women exe­cut­ed in Iran: 114 exe­cut­ed for mur­der, 107 for drug-relat­ed offens­es, four on secu­ri­ty-relat­ed charges, and 16 on unknown charges. The report notes that of those exe­cut­ed for mur­der, 70% were con­vict­ed of killing their hus­bands, ​“often in con­texts of domestic violence.” 

Saudi Arabia Sees Unprecedented Number of Executions in 2024 

A new report by the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) high­lights the record-break­ing num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out by Saudi Arabia in 2024. Averaging an exe­cu­tion every 25 hours, the nation car­ried out a his­toric 345 exe­cu­tions in 2024, a dra­mat­ic increase from the 172 exe­cu­tions the previous year. 

The report high­lights the increased dis­cre­tionary impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty, as 141 of exe­cu­tions were for taazir offens­es, which often include non-seri­ous offens­es such as polit­i­cal accu­sa­tions, express­ing opin­ions, and drug-relat­ed offens­es. 2024 also saw a new­found lack of trans­paren­cy from the Ministry of Interior, who did not dis­close the type of sen­tence in 39 cas­es. According to ESOHR, these were also like­ly taazir death sen­tences, as most of these rul­ings were hand­ed down by the Specialized Criminal Court for ter­ror­ism. In total, the report notes an increase of more than 11% for taazir exe­cu­tions (spec­i­fied and unspec­i­fied), which com­prised 48.7% of all executions. 

Of those exe­cut­ed, 138, or 31%, were for­eign nation­als, rep­re­sent­ing a sig­nif­i­cant increase from the 38 for­eign nation­als exe­cut­ed in 2023. ESOHR iden­ti­fied 15 nation­al­i­ties among those exe­cut­ed, with Yemenis (27) and Pakistanis (25) being the most rep­re­sent­ed. On January 1, 2025, Saudi Arabia announced the exe­cu­tion of six Iranian nation­als for smug­gling hashish. Moreover, 2024 saw the high­est num­ber of women exe­cut­ed in the country’s his­to­ry at nine, mark­ing a 50% increase from 2023. 

Executions for drug-relat­ed offens­es dra­mat­i­cal­ly increased from two in 2023 to 122 in 2024, com­pris­ing 35% of all exe­cu­tions. Of those exe­cut­ed, 77% were for­eign nation­als. After a nine-month pause, exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed offens­es resumed in May 2024. This is the sec­ond time the nation has resumed exe­cu­tions after a pause. In November 2022, the nation resumed exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed offens­es after a pause of near­ly two years, accord­ing to ESOHR. The report notes that drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions high­light Saudi Arabia’s ​“incon­sis­ten­cy” sow ​“con­fu­sion, and lack of trust” and under­mine faith in recent pledges to reform.