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, also believed to have resorted to executions extensively. For the second consecutive year, executing countries reached the lowest number on record.

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.

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:

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).

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:

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:

Throughout history, protest has been a powerful tool for change, but this precious right is under attack. Many governments around the world are restricting people’s right to protest, because they fear change. They want to maintain the status quo. They want to keep people divided. 

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:

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:

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.Even though no executions have been carried out since 2005, the fact that this form of inhuman and degrading punishment remains on the law books, represents an image of a nation stuck in time.