Death penalty is becoming a thing of the past, Amnesty International

2014 saw a global spike in death sentences, Amnesty International reported on Wednesday.  But the number of actual executions went down, leading the rights group to declare that the death penalty was nonetheless becoming a thing of the past.

Death sentences rose worldwide last year but not the number of executions Getty Images/Volkan Kurt

Some 2,466 death sentences were handed out last year, representing a 28 per cent increase on 2013, Amnesty International said in its annual report published Wednesday.

According to the London-based rights watchdog, Egypt and Nigeria accounted for an alarming rise in the number of death sentences handed out around the world in 2014:

• In Egypt, where the government is locked in conflict with supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, the number of death sentences rose to 509 from 109 in 2013;
• Nigeria’s numbers, which shot up to 659 from 141, are mainly linked to the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the country’s north;
• Pakistan for lifted a moratorium on the execution of civilians after a school massacre by Taliban militants in December,  move criticised by Amnesty International.

But some of the report’s numbers tell a different story.

"The death penalty is becoming a thing of the past," Chiara Sangiorgi, an adviser on the death penalty at Amnesty International in London, told RFI.

The organisation recorded 607 executions around the world in 2014, a reduction of almost 22 per cent compared to 2013.

"The global trend is towards abolition," Sangiorgi explained. "Last year we recorded 22 countries carrying out of executions [...] We had 44 countries using the death penalty 38 years ago."

Among the countries that carried out executions last year, China had the highest number of executions in the world.

It was followed by Iran - 289, as well as at least 454 not acknowledged by the authorities -  Saudi Arabia with 90, Iraq with 61 and the United States with 35.

"It will take time, but eventually all countries will abolish death penalty," Sangiorgi believes. "In 1945 when the United Nations was created, only eight countries had abolished the death penalty. As of today we have 99 countries [who have done so]."