LONDON, April 6 (UPI) — There was a 54 percent increase in executions globally in 2015, the highest recorded number in 25 years, a report released by Amnesty International on Wednesday indicates.
There were 1,634 people executed in 2015 — a 54 percent increase from 2014. The London-based human rights organization attributed the “alarming surge” of executions to increases in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which were responsible for 89 percent of global executions last year.
“Countries used various methods to kill: hanging, shooting, lethal injection, beheading. They did this with cold efficiency,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
Amnesty International’s figures do not include China, believed to be the world’s top executioner. The rights group stopped publishing estimated figures in 2009 in an effort to challenge the Chinese government to reveal its own figures after a previous promise to limit death penalty use.
Pakistan executed 326 people in 2015 after lifting a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in 2014 following the Peshawar school massacre by the Pakistan Taliban. Iran executed 997 people, mostly for drug-related crimes. Saudi Arabia executed at least 158 people, an increase of 76 percent.
The United States carried out 28 executions, its lowest since 1991.
In 2015, four countries abolished the death penalty — Madagascar, Fiji, Suriname and Congo. Mongolia will fully outlaw the death penalty for all crimes in September. There are now 102 countries worldwide that have banned death sentences.
“Those that continue to execute are a tiny minority standing against a wave of opposition,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “These few countries have a choice to make — stay rooted in a system that values retribution over rehabilitation, or join the well-worn path to abolition and embrace the principle of every individual’s right to life.”
There are 58 countries that retain the death penalty as law, 32 countries that retain the death penalty as law but have not carried out an execution in more than 10 years and six countries that retain the death penalty for use only for serious crimes like murder or during a time of war.
The year 2015 was a year of sorrow, sadness, and hope for Iranians. There were sorrow and sadness for the loss of many of the best human beings who had dedicated their entire lives for the freedom of Iran. There was hope for a nation who has lived through years of oppression – oppression under the rule of a state religion that has caused unspeakable crimes against those voicing their desires for a free, democratic, and secular society.