2023-05-16 00:09:26
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, there were more executions worldwide last year than in five years. At least 883 executions took place in 20 countries in 2022 – the highest number since 2017, according to the human rights organization’s death penalty report published on Tuesday.
The increase is therefore mainly due to executions in the Middle East and North Africa region. 90 percent of the executions recorded worldwide took place in just three countries in the region – Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
In Iran alone there were at least 576 executions in 2022. In Saudi Arabia, the number of executions tripled from 65 in 2021 to 196 in 2022. In just one day, 81 people were executed. Egypt recorded 24 executions last year.
“Countries in the Middle East and North Africa have shown how little respect they have for human life. Across the region, the number of people who have lost their lives has risen dramatically; in Saudi Arabia, in just one day, tens of thousands of lives have been lost and write 81 people executed. And Iran, in a desperate attempt to put an end to the mass protests there, has executed people solely for exercising their right to protest,” said Agnès Callamard, International Secretary-General of Amnesty International in a broadcast.
According to Amnesty, the highest number of executions takes place in China – although they are not officially confirmed by the Chinese authorities. Even if the exact number is not known, Amnesty assumes that thousands of executions are carried out every year – this puts China far ahead of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA. Executions in North Korea and Vietnam are also not made public, according to the human rights organization.
Death sentences were also carried out once more in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Myanmar, the Gaza Strip and Singapore in 2022 following interruptions. In the US, the number of executions rose from 11 in the previous year to 18 in 2022, according to the report.
However, more and more countries are also abandoning the death penalty. In the past year, six countries have completely or partially abolished it: Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic abandoned the death penalty for all crimes, in Equatorial Guinea and Zambia only for common crimes. Liberia and Ghana initiated legal action to abolish the death penalty.
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