According to a report by Amnesty International, 1,518 executions were recorded in 2024, the largest number since 2015 (1,634), with most occurring in the Middle East. At the same time, for the second consecutive year, the number of countries carrying out executions remains at the lowest level in recorded history.
It is noted that the report's figures do not include thousands of people believed to have been executed in China, as well as in North Korea and Vietnam. Due to ongoing hostilities in Gaza and Syria, Amnesty International was unable to verify the received data.
Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the overall increase in known executions. In total, these three countries accounted for 1,380 executions. Iraq increased its number of executions nearly fourfold (from 16 to 63), Saudi Arabia doubled it (from 172 to 345), and Iran executed 119 more people than last year (from 853 to 972). China and Yemen also ranked among the top five countries with the highest number of recorded executions in 2024.
As noted by Amnesty International, in some countries in the Middle East region, death sentences were used to silence human rights defenders, dissidents, protesters, political opponents, and members of ethnic minorities.
In 2024, Iran continued to use the death penalty to punish those who challenged the Islamic Republic during the "Women for Freedom of Life" uprising. Last year, two of these people, including a young man with mental disabilities, were executed after an unfair trial and fake "confessions" obtained under torture, proving how far the authorities are willing to go to strengthen their control over the population.
The authorities in Saudi Arabia also continue to use the death penalty to suppress political dissent and punish citizens from the country's Shia minority who supported "anti-government" protests from 2011 to 2013. In August, the authorities executed Abdulmajid al-Nimr for terrorism-related crimes, despite initial court documents mentioning his participation in protests.
Despite the increase in executions, only 15 countries are known to have carried them out, which is a record low for the second consecutive year. To date, 113 countries have completely abolished the death penalty, and in 145 countries, the death penalty is abolished either by law or in practice. For the first time, more than two-thirds of all UN member states voted for the tenth General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Death penalty reforms in Malaysia have also led to a reduction of more than 1,000 people facing death.
At the same time, the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced its intention to resume executions, and the military authorities of Burkina Faso announced plans to reintroduce the death penalty for ordinary crimes.