Amnesty unveiled its annual global review of the death penalty on Tuesday, detailing the judicial use of the practice by governments in 2019. According to the UK-based human rights group, at least 657 executions were carried out last year versus the total of 690 or more from the year prior.
Not only does this estimate represent a 5% decline in executions, but it also makes 2019 the second consecutive year that Amnesty has recorded the lowest number of worldwide executions in a 10-year period.
Amnesty credited the continued decline of executions to the “significant reductions” of the penalty in countries such as Egypt, Japan and Singapore, as well as Iran executing fewer individuals following 2017 amendments to its anti-narcotics law.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen upped their respective numbers of executions and do not appear to be on a path toward the abolition of the death penalty.
Saudi Arabia in particular jumped from 149 executions in 2018 to 184 executions last year, breaking the record for the highest amount of executions recorded by Amnesty in a single year. A majority of the executions referenced were for murder or drug-related offenses.
Iraq also saw a significant spike, with executions increasing from at least 52 to 100 or more from 2018 to 2019. Amnesty claims the increase comes as the country has adopted death penalty for those accused of joining Daesh.
It’s worth noting that the published data relies on a variety of sources that range from personal statements from the sentenced individual’s family to official government figures. Amnesty explained that “a lack of transparency by several countries hindered Amnesty International’s full assessment of the global use of the death penalty.”
The human rights group asserted that China, North Korea and Vietnam “continued to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty-related information.” said Clare Algar, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy and policy, according to the organization's website.
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