‘Alarming’ rise in use of death penalty last year, despite global trend towards abolition

The UN advocates universal abolition of the death penalty. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by 175 countries, protects the right to life and stipulates that, for countries that have not abolished capital punishment, it will be imposed only for the “most serious crimes” in exceptional cases.

The OHCHR said the sharp increase in capital punishment last year was driven by executions for drug-related violations, for crimes committed as children and for crimes that do not meet the “most serious crimes.”

“The death penalty is not an effective tool to control crimeand can lead to the execution of innocent people,” said UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk.

“In practice, the death penalty is also often applied in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner, in violation of the fundamental principles of equality before the law.”

Geography of death

OHCHR monitoring reveals that no region claimed a monopoly on capital punishment.

In IranAt least 1,500 people were executed in 2025, and at least 47 percent were related to drug crimes.

In IsraelA series of legislative proposals seeks to expand the use of the death penalty by introducing mandatory capital punishment provisions that would apply exclusively to Palestinians.

In Saudi ArabiaThe number of reported executions surpassed the previous record of 2024, reaching at least 356 people, where 78 percent of the cases were for drug-related crimes. Public executions continued in Afghanistan, in violation of international law.

In the Americas, the USA There were the highest number of executions in 16 years: some 47 prisoners who had been sentenced to death.

Further south, at least 24 people were executed in Somalia and 17 in Singapore.

‘Encouraging steps’

However, the OHCHR noted that several countries took “encouraging steps” last year to limit capital punishment.

Vietnam reduced the number of crimes punishable by death. Pakistan It also eliminated two non-fatal capital crimes, but still retained 29.

Zimbabwe abolished the death penalty for common crimes on December 31, 2024, while Kenya initiated a legislative review of capital punishment.

MalaysiaThe new sentencing process reduced the number of people at risk of execution by more than 1,000 and KyrgyzstanThe Constitutional Court reaffirmed the ban on the death penalty.

Until now, 170 countries have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty, neither in law nor in practice.