Originally Posted: April 5, 2016
Worldwide use of the death penalty rose sharply last year, with 2015 tallying the highest number of executions in 25 years, according to a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International.
At least 1,634 people were executed last year, according to available data as well as executions corroborated by the international human rights group.
The number, which is more than double the 2014 total, is a conservative estimate: Countries currently in conflict, like Syria, were not included since their data could not be corroborated, nor were specific numbers from China, where such data is considered a state secret. China alone is believed to carry out executions that annually number in the thousands.
“The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing,” Amnesty International’s Secretary Salil Shetty said in a statement. “Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world.”
Despite the high rate of global executions last year, the number of countries that have the death penalty is growing smaller by the year. Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo and Suriname all abolished the death penalty in 2015, while Mongolia’s abolition takes effect on July 1.
At least 60 other countries that still have the death penalty but have not used it in a decade are what the United Nations considers “de facto abolitionists.” READ MORE