JOIN USThere has been a 37% decrease in the number of executions carried out worldwide in 2016 as against 2015, the Amnesty International said in its global review of the death penalty released on Tuesday.
In 2016, at least 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries, while 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries across the globe in 2015 – the highest the organisation has recorded since 1989.
The report states that 3,117 death sentences were awarded in 55 countries in 2016, a significant increase from the 1,998 sentences in 61 countries in 2015. At the end of 2016, at least 18,848 people were on death row.
China is the world’s biggest executioner with the communist giant executing more people last year than the rest of the world combined, the report stated, describing the country a “complete outlier” when it comes to death penalty. “China’s horrifying use of the death penalty remains one of the country’s deadly secrets, as the authorities continue to execute thousands of people each year,” the report states.
As many as 87% of the executions took place in just four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. Iraq more than tripled its executions, and Egypt and Bangladesh doubled theirs, the report states. The US recorded 20 executions, a historic low.
But despite the significant decrease worldwide, the overall number of executions in 2016 remained higher than the average recorded for the previous decade, the report added.