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DEATH PENALTY

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WE KNOW THAT, TOGETHER, WE CAN END THE DEATH PENALTY EVERYWHERE.

Every day, people are executed and sentenced to death by the state
as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that
should not be criminalized. In some countries, it can be for drug-
related offences, in others it is reserved for terrorism-related acts
and murder.
Some countries execute people who were under 18 years old when the crime was
committed, others use the death penalty against people with mental and intellectual
disabilities and several others apply the death penalty after unfair trials – in clear violation
of international law and standards. People can spend years on death row, not knowing
when their time is up, or whether they will see their families one last time.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty
opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception – regardless of who is accused,
the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution.

ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY WHERE DO MOST EXECUTIONS TAKE PLACE? NUMBERS OF DEATH SENTENCES AND EXECUTIONS EACH YEAR

THE DEATH PENALTY: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED DEATH PENALTY 2021: FACTS AND FIGURES

ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY

Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to
live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Both rights are protected under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.
108
Over time, the international community has adopted several instruments that ban the use of the death penalty, including
the following: countries had abolished the death
penalty in law by the end of 2021
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty.
Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death
penalty, and Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition

579
of the death penalty in all circumstances.
The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Although international law says that the use of the death penalty must be restricted to the most serious crimes, meaning
intentional killing, Amnesty believes that the death penalty is never the answer. the number of executions Amnesty
International recorded in 2021 – up
20% from 2020
“The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a
solution to it.”

Juvenile Executions
The use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 is prohibited under international human
1,000S
rights law, yet some countries still sentence to death and execute juvenile defendants. Such executions are few
compared to the total number of executions recorded by Amnesty International each year. of people were likely executed in
China but the numbers remain
However, their significance goes beyond their number and calls into question the commitment of the executing states to classified
respect international law.

Since 1990 Amnesty International has documented at least 158 executions of persons who were children at the time of
the crime for which they had been convicted, in 10 countries: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, the USA and Yemen.

Several of these countries have changed their laws to exclude the practice. Iran has executed more than twice as many
people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime as the other nine countries combined. At the time of
writing Iran has executed at least 108 of them since 1990.

Execution Methods used in 2021

Beheading
Hanging
Lethal injection
Shooting

WHERE DO MOST EXECUTIONS TAKE PLACE?

In 2021, most known executions took place in China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria – in that order.

China remained the world’s leading executioner – but the true extent of its use of the death penalty is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at
least 579 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out there.

Excluding China, 80% of all reported executions took place in just three countries – Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

The global view: death sentences and executions 2008-2021

*This map indicates the general locations of boundaries and jurisdictions and should not be interpreted as Amnesty International’s view on disputed territories.

**Country names listed reflect nomenclature in May 2022

HOW MANY DEATH SENTENCES AND EXECUTIONS TAKE PLACE EACH YEAR?
Death sentences Executions

2,052 579
Amnesty International recorded at least 2,052 death sentences in 56 countries in 2021, Amnesty International recorded at least 579 executions in 18 countries in 2021, up by
an increase of 39% from the total of 1,477 reported in 2020. At least 28,670 people 20% from 2020 (at least 483 executions). This figure represents the second lowest
were known to be under sentence of death globally at the end of 2021. number of executions that Amnesty International has recorded since at least 2010.

Executions and death sentences recorded globally

REASONS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

It is irreversible and It does not deter crime It is often used within It is discriminatory It is used as a political
mistakes happen Countries who execute commonly
skewed justice The weight of the death penalty
tool
Execution is the ultimate,
cite the death penalty as a way to systems is disproportionally carried by
The authorities in some
deter people from committing those with less advantaged socio-
irrevocable punishment: the risk countries, for example Iran and
crime. This claim has been In many cases recorded by economic backgrounds or
of executing an innocent person Sudan, use the death penalty to
repeatedly discredited, and there Amnesty International, people belonging to a racial, ethnic or
can never be eliminated. Since punish political opponents.
is no evidence that the death were executed after being religious minority. This includes
1973, for example, more than
penalty is any more effective in convicted in grossly unfair trials, having limited access to legal
184 prisoners sent to death row
reducing crime than life on the basis of torture-tainted representation, for example, or
in the USA have later been
imprisonment. evidence and with inadequate being at greater disadvantage in
exonerated or released from
legal representation. In some their experience of the criminal
death row on grounds of
countries death sentences are justice system.
innocence. Others have been
imposed as the mandatory
executed despite serious doubts
punishment for certain offences,
about their guilt.
meaning that judges are not able
to consider the circumstances of
the crime or of the defendant
before sentencing.

WHAT IS AMNESTY DOING TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY?

For more than 40 years, Amnesty has been campaigning to abolish the death penalty around the world.

Amnesty monitors its use by all states to expose and hold to account governments that continue to use the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. We publish a report
annually, reporting figures and analysing trends for each country. Amnesty’s latest report, Death Sentences and Executions 2021, was released in May 2022.

The organisation’s work to oppose the death penalty takes many forms, including targeted, advocacy and campaign based projects in the Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe and
Central Asia region; strengthening national and international standards against its use, including by supporting the successful adoption of resolutions on a moratorium on the use of the
death penalty by the UN General Assembly; and applying pressure on cases that face imminent execution. We also support actions and work by the abolitionist movement, at national,
regional and global level.

When Amnesty started its work in 1977, only 16 countries had totally abolished the death penalty. Today, that number has risen to 108 – more than half the world’s countries. More than
two-thirds are abolitionist in law or practice.

Trend towards abolition

CASE STUDIES
Saved from death row: Hafez Ibrahim
Thanks to Amnesty’s campaigning efforts, the execution of Hafez Ibrahim, from Yemen,
was stopped not once, but twice. Hafez, who was accused of a crime he insists he didn’t
commit, first faced a firing squad in 2005. He was taken to a small yard in a Yemeni
prison and brought before a row of officers with rifles in hand. He thought that moment
would be his last.

Just before he was about to be shot, he was taken back to his cell, with no explanation. “I
was lost, I did not understand what was happening. I later learned that Amnesty
International had called on the Yemeni President to stop my execution and the message
was heard,” Hafez said.

In 2007, Hafez was about to be executed again when he sent a mobile text message to
Amnesty. “They are about to execute us,” Hafez said.

It was a message that saved his life. The message sparked an international campaign,
persuading the President to stop the execution for a second time.

Now Hafez is a lawyer helping juveniles who languish on death row corridors across Yemen. ©Private/Amnesty International
Seventeen-year-old Hafez Ibrahim was sentenced to death for a murder which he allegedly committed when he was
aged 16. The Yemeni penal code expressly prohibits the execution of anyone under 18 years old. The Minister of
Human Rights in Yemen told AI that Hafez Ibrahim’s age was disputed. However, lawyers representing Hafez Ibrahim
maintain that he is under 18.

Activists on a mission: Souleymane Sow

Amnesty’s work to abolish the death penalty is also bolstered by its incredible activists,
who take it upon themselves to campaign against this abhorrent practice.

Souleymane Sow, has been volunteering with Amnesty International since he was a
student in France. Inspired to make a difference, he returned to Guinea, set up a local
group of Amnesty International volunteers and got to work. Their aim? To promote the
importance of human rights, educate people on these issues and abolish the death
penalty. Along with 34 NGOs, they finally achieved their goal last year.

“My colleagues and I lobbied against the death penalty every day for five months. In 2016,
Guinea’s National Assembly voted in favour of a new criminal code which removed the
death sentence from the list of applicable penalties. Last year, they did the same in the
military court, too,” said Souleymane.

“It was the first time so many NGOs had come together to campaign on an issue. People
said they were happy with our work and they could see that change is possible. Most of all,
it inspired us to continue campaigning.”

“It was such an incredible achievement – and it showed the

importance of people power.”
Souleymane Sow

©Private/Amnesty International

Further Reading

The Death Penalty: Your Questions Answered

Death Penalty and Executions Reports from Previous Years

The Death Penalty V. Human Rights: Why Abolish the Death Penalty?

International Standards on the Death Penalty

The exclusion of child offenders from the death penalty under general international law

Death Penalty 2021: Facts and Figures

Death penalty: Ratification of international treaties

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