Amnesty International: Decrease in Death Penalty Executions in 2018
Amnesty International has released its annual report on capital punishment. According to this report, the number of death penalty executions in 2018 has reached its lowest level in the past decade.
Based on Amnesty International’s annual report, at least 690 people were executed in 20 countries worldwide in the past year. This figure represents approximately one-third fewer executions than the number of death sentences carried out in 2017. It should be noted that this statistic does not include executions in the People’s Republic of China.
China refrains from publishing statistics on executions in the country. Amnesty International believes that thousands of people were executed in China last year as well. Consequently, the number of death sentences carried out in China exceeds the sum of all executions carried out worldwide.
According to Amnesty International’s report, 993 people were executed worldwide in 2017. Therefore, the number of death sentences carried out in 2018 was approximately 300 fewer than the previous year.
Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia
Based on Amnesty International’s annual report, approximately 78 percent of all executions carried out in the past year were related to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Iraq.
Following the People’s Republic of China, Iran ranks second on the blacklist with at least 253 executions carried out in the past year. A total of 149 people were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2018. Vietnam, with at least 85 recorded executions, and Iraq, with at least 52 executions, rank in the following positions.
The decrease in the number of executions in Iran in the past year was attributed to a change in the law regarding drug trafficking penalties. According to this report, the number of death sentences carried out in Iran in 2018 was reduced by half compared to the previous year.
Amnesty International has been fighting against capital punishment worldwide for more than forty years. Markus Beeko, the executive director of Amnesty International in Germany, stated to journalists in this regard: “Capital punishment is a cruel, inhumane punishment that contradicts the right to life and the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
It is said that two-thirds of the world’s countries have abolished capital punishment or refrain from carrying it out.
The executive director of Amnesty International in Germany stated that currently 142 countries worldwide have removed capital punishment from their laws or do not carry out such sentences. This is in contrast to 1987, when only 69 countries opposed the execution of death sentences. This very fact demonstrates more countries turning away from capital punishment.
Continued Efforts
Despite the decrease in the number of executions worldwide, according to Amnesty International’s annual report, 2,531 new death sentences were issued in the past year, and at least 19,336 prisoners sentenced to death are serving their sentences in prisons.
This report also mentions two cases of stoning sentences in Iran. The report also referred to the execution of death sentences in America. In the past year, 25 executions were recorded in the American continent. At least 13 people were executed in Texas in 2018.
Moreover, the report also referred to an increase in death sentences issued in Egypt. In this country, the issuance of death sentences in the past year showed a 75 percent increase compared to 2017.
Source: DW
