The world human rights organization Amnesty International (Amnesty International) says that the number of executions worldwide increased in 2024.
According to the latest Amnesty's 2024 death penalty report, a total of 1.518 people were executed worldwide, a 32 percent increase from 2023, despite a slight decrease in the number of countries applying the death penalty.
Data from this NGO shows that the number of recorded executions last year was the highest since 2015, and that the number of countries applying the death penalty decreased from 16 to 15.
It is believed that the largest number of death sentences in the world are carried out in China, but the exact number of executions is unknown.
China does not publish official data because it considers it a state secret, according to Amnesty International.
Vietnam and North Korea are also believed to widely use the death penalty, but neither country publishes official figures on the number of executions.
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The largest number of known executions
Iran ranks first in the world in the number of known executions.
"Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the huge jump in executions last year, carrying out more than 91 percent of all known executions worldwide, violating human rights and taking people's lives in a callous manner on drug-related and terrorism-related charges," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General.
At least 2024 people were executed in Iran in 972, including 30 women, the report said.
In 2023, 853 executions were carried out in Iran.
Human rights activists in Iran link this spike to political instability in the country.
“The number of executions has increased following mass protests and during periods of political uncertainty,” explains Roja Borumand, executive director of the Center A.bdurahman borumand for human rights in Iran.
Borumand points out that 2022 women were executed in 12, while in 2023 that number increased to 25.
Some of them had been convicted of drug-related crimes.
She also emphasizes that opponents of the regime are also being targeted.
"Several activists have been sentenced to death, which is a clear message to women in Iran who oppose laws and rules that discriminate against women," Borumand told the BBC.
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Saudi Arabia executed 345 people, and Iraq carried out 63 death sentences.
Amnesty says four juveniles have been executed in both Iran and Somalia.
In 2024, public executions were carried out in Iran and Afghanistan.
'Thousands of executions'
Amnesty International data is provided with an important note.
"Our global data for 2024 does not include the thousands of executions and death sentences that we believe were carried out and imposed in China," Chiara Sangiorgio, a death penalty expert at Amnesty, told the BBC.
"Data on death sentences is still classified as a state secret, but the information we have managed to obtain indicates that the situation is frightening."
The NGO believes that China is applying the death penalty for corruption and drug-related crimes, violating a United Nations resolution that states that the death penalty must be limited to only the "most serious crimes."
According to the definition of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, such crimes are those that involve the intentional taking of life.
The death penalty cannot be imposed for crimes that do not result in direct and intentional death, such as drug-related crimes or sexual offenses.
“We also observed that the authorities continue to use execution as a means of state control, as well as to send a message that crime and disobedience will not be tolerated,” Sangiorgio adds.
China has a long history of using the death penalty.
Back in 1983, the authorities introduced a policy of "hard crackdown" on criminal gangs.
According to media reports, some executions were also carried out for non-fatal crimes, such as livestock and vehicle theft.
Drug dealers were a particular target of the authorities.
In 1996, Amnesty reported that on "the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is observed on 26 June, more than 230 people were executed in several cities in a single day."
Is the number of death sentences decreasing?
Professor Michelle Miao from the Chinese University of Hong Kong has been investigating the various causes of the high number of death sentences in China in recent years.
In an interview with the BBC, she spoke about her work and explained why it is difficult to estimate the actual number of executions carried out in China.
"Like many other countries that use the death penalty, China does not publish comprehensive data on executions."
"My research shows that this data is non-transparent both because of the tradition of such politics and because of the sensitivity of the topic itself," says Professor Miao.
During her research, she spoke with 40 judges and the same number of defense attorneys in China.
She concluded that there was inconsistency in the imposition of death sentences, as well as ambiguity in the laws.
"The Criminal Code provides that a suspended death sentence shall be imposed only 'when immediate execution is not necessary.'"
“But what criteria should judges in China use to determine this necessity?” asks Professor Miao.
"More than two-thirds of my interlocutors, including judges of the Supreme People's Court, could not provide a precise answer to this question."
The human rights group Dui Hua, based in the United States (US), says the number of executions in China has fallen from 12.000 in 2002 to around 2.000 in 2018.
However, the group did not provide data for years after 2018.
Dui Hua declined to comment further to the BBC about the current situation in China.
Professor Miao attributes the decline in the estimated number of executions to a series of reforms in the Chinese judicial system that have been implemented over the past two decades.
Convicts now have the right to file two appeals, instead of one, and the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be imposed has been reduced.
The Chinese Criminal Code of 1979 provided for the death penalty for 74 crimes, while that number was changed in 2011 and 2015, and today the death penalty in China can be imposed for a total of 46 crimes.
"The death penalty is most often imposed for murder and drug-related crimes," says Professor Miao.
He believes that the situation will improve in the coming years, as accelerated technological development, better implementation of preventive measures, and improved living standards in China will contribute to reducing crime.
"Given the decline in drug-related crimes, such as trafficking, production and distribution, and murders, and the likelihood that this trend will continue, we can expect a decrease in the overall number of executions in the coming years," Miao said.
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Conviction rate
Chinese courts handle a huge number of cases, and conviction rates are extremely high.
According to a report published by the Dui Hua organization, "out of a total of 1.431.585 criminal defendants in 2022, only 631 were found innocent."
"The conviction rate in 2022 was 99,95 percent, a record, according to data from the China Lawyers Association Yearbook," it says. in a statement by the Dui Hua organization.
Academic paper published in a journal International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice indicates that a court in the city of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, convicted all defendants from 1995 to 1999.
Professor Miao explains that conviction rates are high because cases are vetted before being accepted by the courts.
"Throughout the entire criminal process in China, cases are vetted before the trial begins."
"Only cases that are assessed as most likely to result in a conviction are forwarded to trial."
“This is a consequence of the judiciary’s aversion to risk, as well as a performance appraisal system that motivates prosecutors to dismiss cases where the evidence is weak,” explains Professor Miao.
"This does not only apply to cases that result in the death penalty, but to all criminal cases."
Due to such a high conviction rate, miscarriages of justice are expected.
Twenty-seven officials were punished in 2016 for their involvement in the wrongful execution of a death sentence in the case of a teenager accused of rape and murder, and the 18-year-old's parents were later paid compensation.
China is not the only country with such a high conviction rate.
In Japan, a democratic country, more than 99 percent of defendants are convicted.
However, no death sentences have been carried out in Japan since July 2022.
Despite international concern over the number of executions in China, Professor Miao says a large number of people in China support the death penalty.
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