Stop executions

Criminals sentenced to death during an open trial in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan province December 2006

Amnesty International believes there is likely to have been a significant drop in executions since the Supreme People’s Court review for all death sentences was restored in January 2007. However, China remains the world leader in the use of the death penalty.

The death penalty and the conditions on death row in China are an affront to human dignity. No one sentenced to death receives a fair trial in accordance with international human rights standards.

Around 68 crimes can be punishable by death in China, including non-violent offences like tax fraud, embezzling, taking bribes and some drug crimes.

The only way to verify any drop in the number of executions is to publish the death penalty statistics. China needs to continue this reform by introducing greater transparency, to ensure that the families and lawyers of those sentenced have access to them and to information about their cases.

In line with China’s official goal of complete abolition, it also needs to significantly reduce the number of capital offences and to abolish the death penalty for non-violent crimes.

Death Penalty: Death sentences and executions in 2007