POBNEWS24, Dhaka June 2, 2024 : According to the latest statistics of the international human rights organization Amnesty International, the number of executions worldwide annually continues to increase.
According to Amnesty’s annual report, executions increased by 31 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. A total of 1,153 executions were recorded worldwide last year. In 2022 this number was 883.
Last year saw the highest number of executions in the last eight years. Earlier in 2015 this number was highest, 1 thousand 634 people.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said Iran had seen the largest increase in the number of recorded executions.
“Iranian authorities have shown a gross disregard for human life and have imposed the death penalty for drug-related crimes. “The death penalty has a discriminatory effect on the country’s most marginalized and poor communities,” he said.
Iran accounted for 74 percent of the world’s executions last year.
Amnesty says the number is at least 853. In 2022, 576 people were executed in Iran. The previous year this number was 314 people. Last year, Iran carried out the largest number of executions for drug-related crimes.
According to the report, at least 853 people were executed in Iran last year. However, according to Amnesty, China also carries out many executions each year.
China has no official statistics on executions.
But Amnesty estimates that thousands of people were executed in China last year.
In addition, Amnesty’s report also revealed that the global death penalty rate will increase by 20 percent in 2023.
Last year saw the highest number of executions since 2018.
Which countries have the death penalty more?
According to Amnesty, in 2023, the world’s five countries will carry out the highest number of executions.
Those countries are – China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and USA.
Iran accounted for 74 percent of the executions recorded that year. Also, 15 percent occurred in the Middle East country of Saudi Arabia.
However, just like China, Amnesty did not receive any official statistics from North Korea, Vietnam, Syria, the Palestinian Territories and Afghanistan last year.
How many countries have banned the death penalty?
In 1991, there were 48 countries that banned the death penalty. But in 2023 this number has increased to 112.
Nine countries in the world impose the death penalty for very serious crimes.
However, there are a total of 23 countries worldwide, which have not used the death penalty in at least the last decade.
Global execution methods
In 2023, four known methods of execution were carried out.
Among them, only Saudi Arabia practiced beheading.
Seven countries carry out the death penalty by hanging. Six countries carry out the death penalty by firing squad and three by lethal injection.
“It is difficult to reconcile the death penalty with human dignity and the right to life, including the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk.
Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia is usually carried out by beheading.
Impunity from crime
An acquittal is when a convicted person is released from guilt after the trial and appeal process. or when he is acquitted of a criminal offence.
If someone is given this ‘exoneration’ or immunity, then he is considered innocent in the eyes of the law.
Amnesty International has documented the acquittal of nine death row inmates in three countries around the world.
Among them, five are from Kenya, three from the United States and one from Zimbabwe.
Human rights activists speak out against the death penalty. Their argument is that after the execution of the death sentence, if a person is found innocent, there is no chance of revising the sentence.
Where in doubt
The United Nations human rights office says that countries around the world that have the death penalty believe that “it deters crime.”
The organization, however, refers to the idea of all those countries as ‘fictitious’.
Sociologists agree on one thing. That is, the desired effect of the death penalty order has never been proved.
Some say that what deters criminals the most is the fear of being caught and the possibility of punishment.
In 1988, the United Nations conducted a survey to determine the relationship between the death penalty and murder. It was renovated again in 1996.
“No study has scientifically proven that the death penalty is more effective than life imprisonment,” the survey said.
Effects on children
A total of 1,153 executions were recorded worldwide last year
In 2010, a total of 14 countries in the world, including Algeria, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Turkey, came forward to establish the International Commission Against the Death Penalty.
Later, a total of 24 countries of the world including UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and Togo became members of that commission.
The commission’s latest report, published last year, emphasized that children in many countries around the world are also at risk of the death penalty.
Although mentioned in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its application to children is prohibited. That convention is in force in 196 countries in the world.
An organization called the American Psychological Association (APA) of the United States of America has called for states to ban the death penalty against those under the age of 21.
“The scientific evidence does not suggest that the brains of 18- to 20-year-olds are significantly different from the brains of 17-year-olds,” the agency wrote.
They also say, “The fact that the onset of puberty and immaturity are similar in nature justifies not imposing the death penalty on 16- and 17-year-olds. For that matter, 18 to 20-year-olds have the same characteristics.”
But it is not only the death penalty that affects children. The Commission says that sentencing a criminal to death without any other punishment has an impact on children.
“For example, the death penalty of a parent permanently deprives a child of the opportunity to establish a relationship with his or her parents,” they say.
