Iran executed almost 1,000 people last year, while executions in Pakistan were the highest ever recorded, according to an Amnesty International report that charts a dramatic rise in the numbers of those put to death around the world, reaching a quarter-century high.

Amnesty’s annual review of capital punishment found that at least 1,634 people were executed in 2015, a rise of 54% on the year before and the highest number the human rights organisation has recorded since 1989. Actual figures are likely to be much higher, it says.

The total does not include China – the world leader – where thousands are likely to have been executed but where the use of the death penalty is a state secret. Belarus – the only European country to use the death penalty – and Vietnam do not provide data either. In countries in conflict such as Syria and Yemen little or no information was available.

The world’s top five executioners in 2015 were China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the US. The surge in executions, which Amnesty described as “profoundly disturbing”, was largely fuelled by big increases in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which together accounted for 89% of the total.

But good news included the fact that four countries – Fiji, the Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Suriname – abolished the death penalty for all crimes, reinforcing the long-term trend towards abolition. In all, 102 countries have totally abolished the death penalty. Methods of execution include beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.



In Iran, emerging from isolation after the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions, at least 977 people were executed in 2015, up 31% from the 2014 figure of at least 743. The vast majority were for drug-related offences. Iran is one of the last executioners of child offenders, in violation of international law. Last year it executed at least four people who were under 18 at the time of their crime.

Pakistan continued an “alarming” killing spree it embarked on when it lifted a moratorium on civilian executions in December 2014. More than 320 people were sent to the gallows in 2015, the highest number Amnesty has ever recorded for Pakistan. At least five were reportedly child offenders.

In Saudi Arabia, executions rose by 76% on 2014’s figures, with at least 158 people executed last year – the highest number since 1995. Most were beheaded, but firing squads were also used and bodies were sometimes displayed in public. The Saudis used the death penalty disproportionately on foreign nationals with no knowledge of Arabic, the language of trials.

In the Middle East and north Africa overall, the total number of executions increased by 26%. Egypt sentenced at least 530 people to death and carried out 22 executions. Jordan executed an Iraqi woman involved in the suicide bombings that killed 60 people in 2005.



In the US, the only country in the Americas to use capital punishment, there were 28 executions in six states, the lowest figure since 1991. That decrease was linked to legal challenges to the use of lethal injections.

The number of countries using capital punishment rose from 22 in 2014 to 25 in 2015. At least six countries which did not carry out executions in 2014 did so in 2015, including Chad where executions were carried out for the first time in more than a decade. The 10 people executed were suspected members of Boko Haram.



In most countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the death penalty was imposed after proceedings that did not meet international standards for a fair trial.



Amnesty’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, said: “The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing. Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world. Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.”



The human rights minister for the UK Foreign Office, Lady Anelay, said she was deeply troubled by the increase in executions. “The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and we make our opposition well known at the highest levels to countries which continue to apply it,” she said. “Our message to them is clear: the death penalty is unjust, outdated and ineffective. It also risks fuelling extremism.”

Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: “The sharp rise in executions in countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt over the past year is extremely troubling. It is all the more disturbing, therefore, to see what the foreign affairs select committee this week described as an ‘apparent deprioritisation’ of human rights by the UK government. Now more than ever, Britain needs to be speaking out against the grave abuses – including mass trials, torture and death sentences handed down to juveniles and political protesters – being committed by its allies.”