Iran Accounts for 74% of Global Executions in 2023: Amnesty

The Islamic Republic alone carried out 74 percent of all documented executions worldwide in 2023, Amnesty International reported. 

With 853 executions, a 48 percent increase from the previous year, Iran sits behind China as the world's leading executioner.

"In Iran, the authorities intensified their use of the death penalty to instil fear in the population and tighten their grip on power, carrying out executions across the country," Amnesty said in a report on Wednesday. 

This significant increase in Iran is the primary driver behind the global rise in executions, which reached 1,153 in 2023 – the highest number since 2015.

Executions for drug-related offences surged and constituted 56 percent of recorded executions in 2023, an increase of 89 percent from 255 executions recorded in 2022. 

“The huge spike in recorded executions was primarily down to Iran. The Iranian authorities showed complete disregard for human life and ramped up executions for drug-related offences, further highlighting the discriminatory impact of the death penalty on Iran’s most marginalized and impoverished communities,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

The executions disproportionately impacted Iran’s Baluchi ethnic minority who accounted for 20 percent of recorded executions even though they make up around only five percent of Iran’s population. 

At least 24 women and five people who were children at the time of the crime were executed.