Amnesty International: Global executions in 2023 reach their highest number since 2015

LONDON (AP) — The number of executions recorded globally last year rose to its highest level since 2015, with a sharp increase in Iran and across the Middle East, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday.

The human rights organization said it recorded a total of 1,153 executions in 2023, an increase of 30% compared to the previous year.

Amnesty said the figure does not include thousands of death sentences believed to have been carried out in China, where data is not available due to state secrecy.

The group noted that the increase in recorded executions was mainly due to the increase in cases in Iran, where authorities executed at least 853 people last year, up from 576 in 2022.

Those executed include 24 women and five convicts who were minors at the time of the crime, Amnesty said, adding that the practice disproportionately affected Iran’s Baloch minority.

“Iranian authorities showed complete disregard for human life and escalated executions for drug-related crimes, further highlighting the discriminatory impact of the death penalty on Iran’s most marginalized and impoverished communities,” said Agnès Callamard, general secretary of Amnesty, in a statement.

The group noted that China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the United States were the five countries with the highest number of executions in 2023. The total figure published in Amnesty’s annual report was the highest on record since 2015, when the execution of 1,634 people was reported.

Callamard said progress had stalled in the United States, where executions increased from 18 to 24 and several states “demonstrated a chilling commitment to the death penalty and a callous intent to invest resources in taking human lives.”

The report mentioned the introduction of bills to carry out executions by firing squad in Idaho and Tennessee, and the execution in Alabama last January using nitrogen gas as a new method.

The group said that despite the setbacks, there was progress as the number of countries carrying out executions dropped to 16, the most since the group began keeping records.