According to Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions 2024, 1,518 executions were recorded in 2024 — the highest number since 2015 (at least 1,634) — with the majority in the Middle East. However, for the second year in a row, countries carrying out executions remained at the lowest point on record.

The known totals do not include the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China, which remains the world’s lead executioner, as well as North Korea and Vietnam, which are also believed to resort to the death penalty extensively. Ongoing crises in Palestine and Syria meant that Amnesty International could not confirm a figure there either.

Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the overall rise in known executions. In total, the trio accounted for 1,380 recorded executions. Iraq almost quadrupled its executions (from at least 16 to at least 63) and Saudi Arabia doubled its yearly total (from 172 to at least 345), while Iran executed 119 more individuals than last year (from at least 853 to at least 972) — accounting for 64 per cent of all known executions.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said: “The death penalty is an abhorrent crime with no place in today’s world.

“While secrecy continued to shroud scrutiny in some countries that we believe are responsible for thousands of executions, it’s evident that states that retain the death penalty are an isolated minority.

“With just 15 countries carrying out executions in 2024, the lowest number on record for the second consecutive year, this signals a move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

“Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were responsible for the sharp spike in deaths last year, carrying out over 91 per cent of known executions, violating human rights and callously taking people’s lives for drug-related and terrorism charges.”

She added: “In 2024, Iran persisted in their use of the death penalty to punish individuals who had challenged the Islamic Republic establishment during the Woman Life Freedom uprising.

“Last year saw two of those people — including a youth with a mental disability — executed in connection with the uprising following unfair trials and torture-tainted ‘confessions’, proving how far the authorities are willing to go to tighten their grip on power.”