According to Amnesty International, last year’s number of executions worldwide was documented last year, as it was ten years ago.
The Human Rights Organization records at least 690 executions in 20 states in its 2018 Annual Report on the Death Penalty. In the previous year there were still 993 executions in 23 states. However, there is a considerable number of unreported cases, especially in China, where several thousand people were allegedly executed in 2018, according to the report that is due to be presented today.
Four countries responsible for much of the executions
Four countries were responsible for 78 per cent of the documented executions: Iran (at least 253), Saudi Arabia (149), Vietnam (at least 85) and Iraq (at least 52).
The overall significant decrease in executions has two main causes: „First, some of the countries that are consistently responsible for the bulk of executions around the world, such as Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Somalia, have reduced the use of the death penalty,“ notes the organization , „On the other hand, the number of countries that were known to have carried out executions also decreased.“
Not only good news
There have also been some setbacks in the fight against the death penalty, the authors state. In the majority of countries that condemn or execute people to death, the death penalty is imposed on trials that are not in line with international legal standards for a fair trial. In some cases, judgments have even been based on statements that could have been blackmailed by torture or ill-treatment – such as in Egypt, Bahrain, China, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, „the trend towards the abolition of the death penalty can no longer be reversed, and every year the number of states that waive the death penalty increases.“
