State-sanctioned killings see a 'worrying' 20% global increase with China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia leading as 'the world's most prolific executioners:' report

• The use of the death penalty increased by 20% in 2021, according to an Amnesty International review.
• Meanwhile, the number of people sentenced to death increased by 40%.

State-sanctioned killings ramped up by 20% internationally, according to a Tuesday report by Amnesty International, an organization that compiles data on human rights abuses.

Similarly, there was a 40% international increase in people sentenced to death from 2020 to 2021, according to the organization's 66-page annual review.

In 2020, at least 483 people were executed compared to at least 579 in 2021, while the number of known death sentences increased from at least 1,477 in 2020 to at least 2,052 in 2021. The numbers do not reflect killings in countries like China, North Korea, and Vietnam, where executions are kept secret, making it impossible to track.

However, based on available figures available, Amnesty International believes that China continues to be the world's leading executioner, estimating roughly that the number of state-sanctioned killings has steadily remained in the thousands.

Despite several countries making efforts to "shroud their use of the death penalty behind layers of secrecy," Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General, believes that even the number of known killings is "cause for great alarm," she said in a press release.

Amnesty International denounces the death penalty in all cases and believes it to be a human rights abuse primarily impacting minorities and marginalized communities.

The "worrying rise" is in contrast to 2020's year of lows because of the COVID-19 restrictions that had slowed down judiciary processes, according to the organization's review.

Still, 2021 holds the second-lowest number of killings since 2010, as 2020 remains the lowest. Eighteen countries put people to death in 2021, which the organization marks as the lowest figure since it started tracking executions.

Excluding China, North Korea, and Vietnam's secret killings, Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia made up approximately 80% of global executions last year.

The organization cited Mehran Naru'i, a man of the Baluchi ethnic minority in Iran, who was executed in May 2021. Naru'i, who was denied a lawyer, claimed to have made a false confession after enduring both torture and enforced disappearance.

Other prisoners in Iran have made similar accusations.

Callamard believes that Iran's, Egypt's, and Saudi Arabia's appetites "for putting the executioner to work has also shown no sign of abating in the early months of 2022."

"Instead of building on the opportunities presented by hiatuses in 2020, a minority of states demonstrated a troubling enthusiasm to choose the death penalty over effective solutions to crime, showing a callous disregard for the right to life even amid urgent and ongoing global human rights crises," Callamard added.

The organization estimates that at least 28,670 people were living under the death sentence across the globe by the end of last year.

"The minority of countries that still retain the death penalty are on notice: a world without state-sanctioned killing is not only imaginable, it is within reach and we will continue to fight for it," said Callamard. "It is high time the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment is consigned to the history books."