Amnesty International: Record Death in 2024

William Gallon – the Vatican city

1.518: This is the huge and exciting number of people convicted of death all over the world in 2024, according to the usual report of Amnesty International. On the other hand, the number on the one hand is the highest since 2015, on the other hand, highlights how the number of cases that carried out death sentences is the least recorded.

Where the largest number of concentrations is concentrated

The shy hope, the latter, however it must face a broader and more bloody reality, especially in a complex area like the Middle East. According to Amnesty International, the largest number of death sentences is concentrated here. In particular, the report emphasizes that “Iran, Iraq and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were responsible for the general increase in known executions.” Together, these three countries recorded 1,380 executions. Iraq made a quarter of a number of executions (from at least 16 to 63), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia doubled its annual total (from at least 172 to 345), while Iran has executed 119 people more than 2023 (from at least 853 to 972), which represents 64 percent of all known executions.

Partial estimates are still

However, the amnesty continues, “known numbers do not include thousands of people who believe they have been executed in China, which is still the country with the largest number of executions in the world, as well as in North Korea and Vietnam, where the death penalty is believed to be widely applied.” In addition, the report continues, the current crises in Palestine and Syria did not allow pardon to confirm the exact numbers. Fears that these numbers will be lower than reality due to the state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the government announced its intention to resume executions and Burkina Faso, as the military authorities announced their intention to re -present the death penalty for joint crimes. In general, the five countries with the largest number of executions registered in 2024 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen.

The risk of machinery

Although international human rights law requires the death penalty limited to “the most dangerous crimes”, more than 40 percent of the executions in 2024 were for drug crimes, which fall outside the threshold set by international standards. In fact, there is a very dangerous trend – it is also observed in the report – is to adjust the death penalty as an excuse to improve public safety or plant fear among the population. In a more distinguished world of the need for “security” and “independence”, Amnesty International has been martyred in the United States, where the executions have increased continuously since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, where 25 people were requested, compared to 24 in 2023 “and” the newly elected president Donald Trump has repeatedly requested against the “elderly murderers”. “

Only 15 countries have carried out the death penalty

But among many shades, there is an increasingly wonderful light: in 2024, only 15 states of death sentences were carried out, which is the lowest number ever. The abolition front grows: 113 countries completely canceled the death penalty, and a total of 145 countries are no longer applied, in law or in practice. Zimbabwe was characterized by a historical transformation point by canceling the death penalty for joint crimes, while Malaysia reduced the inhabitants of death by more than a thousand thanks to the high reforms. In Japan, Hakamada Iwao was acquitted after nearly fifty years in the deathway. In 2025, in Alabama, Rocky Myers was reduced to the death sentence. Clear signs that the change is possible, as shown in the United Nations, where, for the first time, more than two thirds of the member states voted in favor of the global endowment on the death penalty. It is not a coincidence that this sign of hope came on December 17, on the eve of the jubilee, the year of hope.