INDEX

Ufuatiliaji wa Amnesty International wa matumizi ya adhabu ya kifo duniani ulibaini watu
1,153 wanaofahamika kuwa walinyongwa mwaka 2023, ambalo ni ongezeko la asilimia
31 kutoka 883 mwaka 2022. Hata hivyo nchi zinazowanyonga watu zilipungua kwa
kiwango kikubwa kutoka 20 mwaka 2022 hadi 16 mwaka 2023

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition

Amnesty International’s monitoring of the global use of the death penalty recorded 1,153 known executions in 2023, an increase by 31% from 883 in 2022. However, there was a significant decrease in executing countries, from 20 in 2022 to 16 in 2023.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages التقرير العالمي لمنظمة العفو الدولية أحكام وعمليات اإلعدام في 2023Informe Global de Amnistia internacional: condenas a muerte y ejecuciones 2023Amnesty international - Rapport mondial : condamnations à mort et exécutions 2023

In January 2024, Ohio lawmakers announced plans to expand the use of the death penalty to permit executions with nitrogen gas, as Alabama had just done a week earlier. But at the same time the Attorney General and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association are championing this legislation, a bipartisan group of state legislators has introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty based on “significant concerns on who is sentenced to death and how that sentence is carried out.” The competing narratives make it more important than ever for Ohioans to have a meaningful, accurate understanding of how capital punishment is being used, including whether the state has progressed beyond the mistakes of its past.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Fair Trial / Innocence / Trend Towards Abolition

This report builds on the pioneering work HRI has been doing since its first ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview (‘Global Overview’) in 2007. It analyses how the landscape of the death penalty for drug offences has shifted in the last decade, looking at the main trends regarding people on death row, death sentences and executions for drug offences, as well as key developments at national and international level in the period between 2014 and 2023.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offenses

Published on February 2024.

Texas has executed more people than any other state. However, out of the 254 counties in Texas, 136 have never sent an individual to death row. Harris County—Texas’s largest county and home to the city of Houston—stands out as the “death penalty capital of the world.” Harris County has executed more people than any state in the United States except Texas3 and is responsible for a quarter of the 1,124 people who have been sent to Texas’s death row since 1973.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States

Published on April 2024.

Researchers at Reprieve conducted an in-depth comparative study of botched lethal injection executions in the modern era of the U.S. death penalty, cross-referenced against the 1,407 lethal injection executions carried out or attempted during that period.

This report examines the phenomenon of botched executions by lethal injection, exploring the trends and contributing factors leading to botched executions through an analysis of 73 botched executions in the 1,407 lethal injection executions since 1977 (known as the modern era of the death penalty in the U.S.). This analysis used a process called multi-variable logistic regression, a type of analysis that assesses the odds of something happening considering multiple variables, to assess how identifiable characteristics (gender, age, and race) were associated with botched executions.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Published on April 8, 2024.

As the Constitutional Court of the Republic of China considers a challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty, Amnesty International Taiwan and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty submitted a joint amicus curiae intervention, to ensure the protection of the rights of all those under sentence of death. The amicus interveners argue that the use of the death penalty in the Republic of China constitutes a violation of human rights as guaranteed under the Constitution and international law and standards; and sets the country against the global trend, which remains overwhelmingly in favour of abolition.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Taiwan
• Available languages 憲法法庭法庭之友意見書 主案案號：111年度憲民字第904052號 法庭之友：國際特赦組織台灣分會 均詳委任狀 代 表 人：林綉娟 理事長 代 理 人：陳瑋珊 律師 均詳委任狀 均詳委任狀

Published in 2024.

This research briefing documents the horrifying surge in executions in Iran in 2023, the highest in eight years. More than half of the executions were for drug-related offences amid a distressing return to a lethal antinarcotics policy since Ebrahim Raisi’s rise to presidency in 2021. With systemic impunity in Iran, the briefing reiterates the need for states to initiate criminal investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction into crimes under international law committed by Iranian officials, irrespective of the absence or presence of the accused in their territory. Since the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising of September-December 2022, the Iranian authorities have weaponized the death penalty to create a pervasive climate of fear across the country, exert control over the population, and suppress dissent and any challenge to their iron grip on power. As a result, 2023 saw an exponential increase in the number of recorded executions. The authorities executed at least 853 people in 2023, a 48% increase from 2022 when 576 people were executed and a 172% increase from 2021 when 314 people were executed. Amnesty International believes that the real number of executions is higher, but the Iranian authorities are not transparent about the number of people executed each year and do not make data on executions publicly available.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Available languages « ن گ راذ ی د ام ار دنشکب » نارحب مادعا یب یاه ناما رد اریا شزیخ نامز زا ن لاس 1

Published in 2023.

At the end of 2023, 34 countries retained the death for drug offences. In July 2023 Pakistan took the landmark decision to remove the death penalty from the list of punishments that can be imposed for certain violations of its Control of Narcotics Substances Act. This year also saw notable progress in Malaysia, which abolished the mandatory death penalty for all offences, including drug-related ones. This reform may impact the lives of over 700 people on death row for drug offences and bring the country one step closer to total abolition of capital punishment. In stark contrast to these positive developments is the record-high number of drug-related executions in 2023 at least 467. Of those executed, at least 59 people belonged to ethnic minority groups (in Iran and in Singapore), 13 individuals were foreign nationals, and six were women. These figures confirm that these groups are uniquely vulnerable to capital punishment as a tool of drug control. Despite not accounting for the dozens, if not hundreds, of executions believed to have taken place in China, Vietnam, and North Korea, the 467 executions that took place in 2023 represent a 44% increase from 2022.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offenses

Chapter 12 of SUARAM’s Malaysia Human Rights Report 2023 highlights the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia and its significance for human rights. The chapter provides an in-depth look at the legislative reforms, the implications for justice, and the challenges ahead in transitioning towards a more humane penal system. It underscores the importance of continued advocacy for complete abolition.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition