Death penalty: in one year, the number of executions around the world jumped by 78%, according to Amnesty International – L’Humanité

A record since 1981. According to an Amnesty International report, published this Monday, May 18, 2,707 people were executed across the world in 2025 following a death sentence, in a total of 17 countries. “This shameless minority (of states, editor’s note) uses capital punishment to instill fear, crush dissent and show the force that institutions exercise on disadvantaged people and marginalized populations.”denounced Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in a statement.

A spectacular increase, largely driven by Iran, where the number of death sentences has more than doubled in one year. A sign of a global phenomenon, the NGO also points to the return of the United States to the top 5 countries with the most recourse to capital punishment.

An alarming situation which could turn out to be much worse since Amnesty indicates, in its report, that these figures are “A little bit”. The NGO emphasizes that for many countries, like China, data relating to the death penalty are, at best, underestimated, and at worst classified by states.

“The death penalty as a tool of repression and political control”

If the figure for the year 2025 still remains far from the 3,191 record executions of 1981, it has increased by 78% compared to 2024. An outbreak which comes mainly from Iran, which alone represents, 80% of executions recorded by the NGO. It must be said that the Iranian regime has clearly intensified its deadly policy. In 2024, Amnesty recorded 972 executions by hanging compared to no less than 2,159 in 2025, a spectacular increase of 122%.

“Iranian authorities have intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression and control, fueling an unprecedented rise in the number of executions.”notes the NGO in its report. Tehran’s shift takes place during the period of the 12-day war which pitted the country against Israel and the United States in June 2025. While 654 executions had already been recorded before the conflict, the report states 1,505 additional executions between July and December, more than double. Nearly half of these executions are linked to offenses against drug legislation.

A situation that is unlikely to improve over time, since the report does not take into account Tehran’s violent repression of the massive protest movement that occurred in January 2026. While little reliable data is currently available, the UN estimates that at least 21 people have been executed in the country since the end of February for political or political reasons. linked to national security.

Return of the United States in the top 5 executioner countries

Behind Iran, we find Saudi Arabia with a total of 356 executions, then Yemen (51 executions), the United States (47 executions) and Egypt (23 executions). Significantly, the United States is back in the top 5 executioner countries. A result of Donald Trump’s return to the White House according to the NGO, which underlines in its report the effects of the decree ratified during his inauguration in January 2025 and which orders the systematic use of the death penalty for the most serious crimes.

The Trump administration took a new step in April 2026, authorizing, at the federal level, firing squads, electrocution and lethal gas inhalation in addition to lethal injection. As a reminder, the death penalty is in force in 27 of the 50 federal states.

Despite a variety of sources to construct this report, the NGO underlines, as every year, the difficulty of producing a precise figure for executions throughout the world due to concealment by the states concerned. For China for example, Amnesty International explains that it has no longer published its estimates since 2009 so that they are not distorted, with Beijing considering these data as “The secret of summer”. The NGO estimates, however, that more than 1,000 people have been executed by the Chinese state, which places it at the top of the ranking, and specifies that these executions very often follow economic crimes (corruption, fraud) or crimes against the state (espionage, treason).

The only pleasing fact from this report is that Amnesty International notes a step towards the abolition of the death penalty in several countries. In Vietnam, the death penalty was abolished for a series of eight crimes while it was abolished for crimes of murder, treason and other offenses against the state in The Gambia. The NGO also points out that abolition bills are currently under parliamentary examination in Lebanon as well as in Nigeria. In 86 countries, the death penalty has still not been abolished.