Israel is debating legislation to reintroduce capital punishment for Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist attacks. Although the death penalty remains on Israel’s statute books, it has not been enforced for decades; the proposed bills would reverse that practice and run counter to a broader global move toward abolition.
Amnesty International reports that 113 countries have fully abolished capital punishment. Other states have abolished it for ordinary crimes but retain it for military offences, and several maintain formal or informal moratoria on executions.
In 2024 Amnesty recorded more than 2,000 death sentences handed down in 46 countries. Regional patterns vary widely. Europe and Central Asia saw only one recorded death sentence, in Belarus. In the Americas the United States imposed 26 death sentences and Trinidad and Tobago one. Sub‑Saharan Africa recorded several hundred death sentences across 14 countries; among those, Nigeria (over 180) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (over 125) accounted for large shares. The Middle East and North Africa recorded nearly 800 death sentences across nine countries. The Asia‑Pacific region reported the highest total, well over 800 death sentences, with Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam each recording three‑digit figures. Exact totals are uncertain for some states—Afghanistan, China and North Korea do not publish reliable figures.
The recorded number of death sentences fell from roughly 2,400 in the previous year to just under 2,100 in 2024. Over the decade from 2014 to 2024 the annual total fluctuated around 2,000, peaking near 3,100 in 2016 and dipping to just under 1,500 in 2020.
Death sentences and executions do not always move in step. Sentences may not lead to immediate execution, and some executions are carried out years after conviction. Separate monitors report very high execution totals for 2025: Iran Human Rights documented at least 1,500 executions in Iran in 2025, while the United Nations recorded at least 356 executions in Saudi Arabia and 47 in the United States that year.
Amnesty’s longer‑term data show different trajectories for sentences and executions. Death sentences have fluctuated and dropped in 2024 relative to 2023, while executions rose after a low point in 2020: following a peak of 1,634 executions in 2015, the global total fell to 483 in 2020 but climbed each year thereafter to 1,518 in 2024. Reported executions in 2025 indicate totals are likely higher still.
Overall, fewer countries now impose death sentences, but those that do are increasingly responsible for large numbers of executions. Amnesty ranks China first in 2024 with thousands of executions (estimates, since official figures are secret), Iran second with at least 972 executions and Saudi Arabia third with at least 345. Many other countries carry out executions in the double or single digits. Reliable execution figures are not available for Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria or Vietnam.
Whether executions will continue rising into 2026 is uncertain. Events such as Iran’s crackdown on protesters point to continued high numbers in some countries, and in others there are no signs of reduced use of capital punishment.
This article was originally published in German.