90 percent of executions carried out outside of China have taken place in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt
May 16. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The NGO Amnesty International (AI) has warned this Tuesday that the highest number of executions worldwide in the last five years was recorded in 2022, a practice that has been especially concentrated in countries in the Middle East and northern Africa.
In its annual report on capital punishment, the organization has indicated that a total of 883 executions have taken place in some twenty countries, which represents 53 percent more than the data collected in 2021.
At the head of this increase in executions – which does not include data of this type in China, where it is estimated that a thousand people are executed each year – is Iran, which accumulates 314 executions, followed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. . Thus, there are still 55 countries that resort to this practice.
“Countries in the Middle East and North Africa region violated international law by increasing executions in 2022, revealing a callous disregard for human life,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard warned.
In this sense, he has pointed out that the number of people who have been deprived of their lives “increased spectacularly throughout the region” and has pointed out that Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day.
“More recently, in a desperate attempt to end the popular uprising, Iran has executed people just for having exercised their right to protest,” he pointed out before stating that these are “alarming” data.
90 percent of the executions carried out outside of China have taken place in three countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with 576, 196 and 24, respectively, according to data from Amnesty, which has stated that the use of the death penalty it continues to be surrounded by “secrecy” in countries like China, North Korea and Vietnam. That is why the organization considers that these figures could be much higher.
ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PENALTY
Although six countries have moved to partially or fully abolish capital punishment during that time period, five more have moved to resume executions on their territories, including Afghanistan (where public executions continue to take place), Kuwait, Burma and Singapore.
The documented number of people executed for those related to drug trafficking doubled “by far” in 2022 compared to 2021, as denounced in the report, which points out that this type of execution “violates International Law.”
Executions for these types of crimes have been documented in countries including Saudi Arabia (57), China, Iran (255) and Singapore (11), accounting for 37 per cent of all executions documented worldwide by the organization.
“In a cruel irony, nearly 40 percent of all known executions were for drug offences. What’s worse: this cruel punishment often disproportionately affects people from disadvantaged backgrounds,” Callamard said. “It is time for governments and the United Nations to increase pressure on those responsible for these flagrant violations of Human Rights and guarantee the establishment of international safeguards,” he said.
The report also highlights the use of different practices to carry out these sentences and qualifies that only in Saudi Arabia they continue to resort to beheading to carry out these executions, while other countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Japan, Burma and Sudan of the South use hanging.
Only in China, the United States and Vietnam, those executed are subjected to lethal injection, while in Afghanistan, Belarus, China, North Korea, Somalia and Yemen, among others, they use firearms.
NUMBER OF CONVICTIONS
Although the number of executions has been increasing, the death penalty sentences imposed throughout 2022 have remained at levels similar to previous years, around 2,000.
Data obtained by Amnesty indicates that 28,670 people continue to be sentenced to death worldwide, while the total number of such sentences decreased in 2022 compared to the 2021 data. In this period, at least 2,016 new sentences were handed down against 2,052 of 2021.
However, variations in the nature and availability of information on death sentences in some countries make it difficult to assess this overall total compared to previous years, as the NGO explains in its report, which points out that in 2022, these types of sentences were imposed in 52 countries, four fewer than the previous year.
Despite these data, Amnesty has highlighted that countries such as Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic have managed to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Equatorial Guinea and Zambia abolished it only for common crimes.
Thus, according to data from December 2022, 112 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and nine have withdrawn its use for common crimes. “When so many countries continue to consign the death penalty to the dustbin of history, it is time for others to follow suit,” Callamard said.
For her, “brutal actions such as those carried out in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as China, North Korea and Vietnam, are already a minority”, but she has insisted that “these countries must urgently adapt to the times , protect Human Rights and do justice instead of carrying out executions”.
“With 125 UN member states calling for a moratorium on executions, Amnesty International has never felt more hope than now that this abhorrent punishment can and will be consigned to the annals of history.” expressed, but not before qualifying that the “tragic figures of 2022 remind us that we cannot rest on our laurels”. “We will continue campaigning until the death penalty is abolished across the planet,” she pointed out.
