This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2024. Amnesty International’s monitoring shows an increase by 32% in recorded executions compared to 2023. This does not include the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China, as well as in North Korea and Viet Nam,…
Global executions hit their highest figure since 2015, as over 1,500 people were executed across 15 countries in 2024, said Amnesty International today as it released its annual report on the global use of the death penalty. According to the report, Death Sentences and Executions 2024, 1,518 executions were recorded in 2024 – the highest number…
More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. This document includes Amnesty International’s lists of countries in the four categories: abolitionist for all crimes, abolitionist for ordinary crimes only, abolitionist in practice and retentionist.
Reacting to news that Zimbabwe’s Senate has passed the Death Penalty Abolition Bill on 11 December 2024, which now awaits the President’s assent, Amnesty International Zimbabwe’s Executive Director, Lucia Masuka, said: “The Senate’s historic vote is a major step by Zimbabwe towards the abolition of the death penalty. It is also a victory for all…
Three sub-Saharan African countries on the cusp of abolition must act now and abolish the death penalty once and for all, paving the way for others around the world to follow in their footsteps, said Amnesty International on World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October). Kenya and Zimbabwe currently have bills tabled to abolish the…
Responding to the news that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government wants to resume executions, after a hiatus of two decades, in a bid to combat armed groups and gang violence, Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said: “The government’s decision to reinstate executions is a gross injustice for people sentenced to death…
Responding to a move by Zimbabwe’s cabinet to back abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Khanyo Farisè, said: “Zimbabwe has taken the right step towards ending this abhorrent and inhuman form of punishment that has no place in our world. “Now that the cabinet has given…
Responding to the news Tafadzwa Shamba and Tapiwa Makore Senior have been sentenced to death by the Harare High Court over the murder of Tapiwa Makore three years ago, Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa, said: “Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the…
Responding to the news that the Senate has passed on 7 June 2023 the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill 2022, commonly referred to as the “Patriotic Bill”, which criminalizes “wilfully injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe”, Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said: “The passing…
Responding to the news that Singapore authorities have set the execution dates of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam and another Malaysian man – Datchinamurthy Kataiah – for next week, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Erwin van der Borght said:
Zimbabwe has practiced the death sentence for over a century with one of the most high-profile executions being that of Mbuya Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana in 1898 by the British colonial authorities. To this day her death is considered harsh, unjust and inconsiderate.