1,153 people executed worldwide in 2023, including 74% recorded in Iran, according to Amnesty International

This is “the highest figure” recorded by the NGO since the exceptional peak of capital punishment in 2015.

1,153 executions were recorded in 2023 worldwide and Iran alone represents 74% of this figure, indicates the Amnesty International report on the death penalty, published Wednesday May 29 and transmitted to the Radio Agency France. Compared to 2022, when there were 883 executions, this represents an overall increase of 31% (+270). The number of death sentences handed down worldwide increased by 20% in 2023, reaching a total of 2,428, specifies Amnesty International.

1,153 executions is “the highest number” noted by the NGO since the exceptional peak of 1,634 death sentences in 2015 and this is the first time since 2016 (1,032 executions) that the known total exceeds a thousand. “Despite this increase, the number of countries carrying out executions has never been lower,” tempers Amnesty International. There were 16 in 2023 compared to 20 the previous year. There were no executions in Europe, only the USA applied the death penalty for the American continent, only Somalia for the African continent.

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the United States are the five countries that carried out the highest number of executions in 2023. Iran accounts for 74% of all recorded executions, and Saudi Arabia 15%. Somalia and the United States carried out more executions in 2023 than in the previous year.

In Iran, “the authorities have increased their use of the death penalty in order to spread fear among the population and tighten their grip on power”, analyzes Amnesty International. In detail in Iran, at least 853 people were put to death in 2023 compared to 576 in 2022, an increase of 48%. The executions “have aimed in such a way Iran’s Baluch ethnic minority, which accounted for 20% of recorded executions but only about 5% of the Iranian population, is disproportionately disproportionate.. At least 24 women and five people who were minors at the time of the crimes they were accused of were executed.

The death penalty figures remain “unknown in China which remains the world leader in executions”either “several thousand per year”, according to the Amnesty International report. In China and Vietnam, “the figures relating to the application of the death penalty are classified as a state secret. For the year 2023, there is very little information, if any, on certain countries, in particular Belarus and Korea North”, notes the NGO.

Finally on the methods of execution, Saudi Arabia practices decapitation, Bangladesh, Egypt, Singapore, and even Iran, hanging, execution by bullet is used in Afghanistan, North Korea, in Somalia or even China which practices lethal injection with the United States. At least eight public executions have been recorded: at least one in Afghanistan and seven in Iran.

Amnesty International is also concerned about declines in the United States in particular, with “increase in number of executions from 18 to 24”. The authors of the report are also concerned that “Bills aimed at the use of execution squads have been introduced in Idaho and Tennessee”. However, Amnesty International is pleased that to date “112 countries have completely abolished the death penalty and 144 have done so in law and in practice.”