According to the organization, the global trend is still towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Mixed the number of death sentences and executions increased globally last year as delays in legal proceedings due to the corona pandemic subsided.
The matter emerges from Amnesty International’s annual report, which tracks death sentences and executions.
Last year, a total of 579 executions were recorded in 18 countries worldwide, which is 20 percent more than in the previous year. A total of 2,052 new death sentences were recorded in 56 countries, almost 40 percent more than in 2020.
The actual number of death sentences and executions is likely to be many times higher than those figures, Amnesty notes.
Statistics do not show the number of death sentences imposed and executed in China, North Korea or Vietnam, for example. Amnesty believes thousands of people are executed in China alone every year.
Disproportionate a large proportion of people sentenced to death are poor or belong to religious or ethnic minorities. For this reason, according to Amnesty, the death penalty is a discriminatory punishment.
In 2021, death sentences were also sought to silence journalists and activists, according to the human rights organization.
Although the number of death sentences and executions increased compared to the previous year, the global trend, according to Amnesty International, is towards a ban on the death penalty. During 2021, policymakers in Sierra Leone and Kazakhstan, for example, advocated the abolition of the death penalty.
“Certain countries still favor the use of the death penalty instead of focusing on crime prevention. However, the number of countries in favor of the death penalty is declining year by year. Amnesty continues to work to end inhuman and discriminatory punishment,” said Amnesty Finland’s executive director. Frank Johansson in the bulletin of the annual report.
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