Global death penalty cases jump 78 percent in 2025
Amnesty warns of rising use of capital punishment as worldwide executions reach four-decade high
Global executions climbed to their highest level in more than four decades during 2025, with rights group Amnesty International reporting a dramatic surge.
According to Amnesty’s annual “Death Sentences and Executions Report 2025,” at least 2,707 executions were recorded worldwide during the year, a 78 percent increase compared to 2024 and the highest number documented by the organization since 1981, when 3,191 executions were registered.
Amnesty said several governments increasingly used the death penalty as a political and security tool, placing what it described as “this cruel punishment” at the center of hardline public security narratives aimed at asserting state authority and consolidating control.
The report further noted methods of execution recorded during 2025 included hanging, beheading, lethal injection, shooting, and nitrogen gas asphyxiation.
Despite the sharp rise in executions, Amnesty highlighted signs of progress toward abolishing capital punishment globally. By the end of 2025, a total of 113 countries had fully abolished the death penalty for all crimes, compared with just 16 countries in 1977, dw.com reports.
The report pointed to reforms in several countries, including Vietnam, which reduced the number of offenses punishable by death, while legislative initiatives in Gambia, Liberia, and Nigeria sought to further restrict or eliminate capital punishment.
In Kyrgyzstan, the Constitutional Court ruled that reintroducing the death penalty would violate the constitution, while Zimbabwe commuted all existing death sentences.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stressed that only humane and rights-based justice systems can truly deliver justice, expressing hope for universal recognition that protecting societies depends on strong institutions and accountability rather than executions.
