The number of judicial executions worldwide reached a new high last year. According to its own statements, the human rights organization Amnesty International documented at least 883 executions in 20 countries in 2022. This is the highest number of judicial executions since 2017, according to the report on the global use of the death penalty published in Berlin on Tuesday.
In addition, the human rights organization assumes that there will be thousands more executions in China, North Korea and Vietnam, “which are being kept under wraps,” according to Amnesty.
The increase in official figures is mainly due to executions in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. With at least 576 executions, Iran alone is responsible for 65 percent of all known executions worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, the number tripled from 65 (2021) to 196 (2022). 81 people were executed there in a single day and overall it was the highest figure for 30 years that Amnesty recorded for the country. 24 people were executed in Egypt. In the US, the number of executions rose from 11 to 18.
Death sentences were carried out again after interruptions in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Myanmar, the Gaza Strip and Singapore. The number of executions for drug-related offenses has more than doubled since the previous year. According to Amnesty, 255 people were executed in Iran alone, 57 in Saudi Arabia and 11 in Singapore.
Six countries had abolished the death penalty in whole or in part in the past year. These include Kazakhstan, Sierra Leone and Zambia. By the end of 2022, 112 countries would have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.