Close to 2,000 individuals were put to death in 25 countries and that is just in 2015 alone, according to Amnesty International.
The global human rights group has detailed in its report that the actual number of people executed in the said period reached 1,634 - the highest in the last 25 years.
The report said that it is a 54 percent increase from known executions in 2014. The value does not include data from China, where executions are treated as state secrets. The agency estimated that China execute thousands of individuals every year.
It is particularly alarming that only three countries - Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan, account for about 90 percent of the recorded deaths. Pakistan only reinstated its capital punishment in 2014 after a six-year moratorium.
In the U.S., Amnesty was able to verify 28 executions for 2015, the lowest since 1991. All those executions were carried out by lethal injection - the country's primary method of execution. The American Pharmacists Association strongly opposes the use lethal injection and asks fellows not to participate in executions, as providing injections that result in death is against their core values as health care providers.
Amnesty states that data provided is based on the verified executions and adds that in countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Somalia, the actual numbers may be higher than what is confirmed.
The international human rights group also calls out government officials with the rise of death penalties carried out in 2015, saying that it does not help curb crime rates.
"The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing," said Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty. "In 2015, governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer."
Amnesty also took a jab at Japan for executing inmates with mental disabilities.
In Japan, prisoners on death row were subjected to solitary confinement and prohibited from communicating with fellow prisoners. This practice has angered penal reform advocates, as they see solitary confinement as a cause of further deteriorating mental health.
Salil expressed concern that most of the prisoners were executed after unjust trials and in an attempt to contravene international laws.
The report also took note of the 102 countries that completely abolished the death penalty. Just last year Madagascar, Fiji, Suriname, and Republic of Congo passed a law abolishing death penalty. Mongolia has recently passed a law against death penalty effective later this year.
"Thankfully, countries that execute belong to a small and increasingly isolated minority," said Salil. "The majority of states have turned their back on the death penalty."
Photo: Tim Menzies | Flickr
