This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2016. Amnesty International reports only on executions, death sentences and other aspects of the use of the death penalty, such as commutations and exonerations, where there is reasonable confirmation. In...

The trials of 54 individuals who were sentenced to death over the events that happened in the Kabylie region, in the north-east of Algeria in August 2021, including the lynching of an activist, were marred by fair trial violations and torture claims, while at least six were prosecuted due to their...

The Iranian authorities have embarked on an execution spree, killing at least 251 people between 1 January and 30 June 2022, according to research by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran and Amnesty International. The organizations warned that if executions continue at this...

The mass execution of 81 individuals, Saudi and non-Saudi citizens, on Saturday signals an appalling escalation in Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty, Amnesty International said today, bringing the country’s tally of executions to 92 so far in 2022 alone. The Ministry of Interior on Saturday...

Some countries execute people who were under 18 years old when the crime was committed, others use the death penalty against people with mental and intellectual disabilities and several others apply the death penalty after unfair trials – in clear violation of international law and standards....

Reacting to news that Kazakhstan has signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, committing it to abolish the death penalty, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “This news encourages us as...

There has been an alarming escalation in use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups in Iran, Amnesty International said today, following the executions on 13 July of two Kurdish men in Urumieh prison in West Azerbaijan province. Diaku Rasoulzadeh and...

Following Saudi Arabia’s announcement that it plans to end the use of the death penalty against people below the age of 18 at the time of the crime in cases not involving the counter-terror law, Amnesty International has called on the country to totally abolish the death penalty. “While this...

Following Saudi Arabia’s announcement that it plans to end the use of the death penalty against people below the age of 18 at the time of the crime in cases not involving the counter-terror law, Amnesty International has called on the country to totally abolish the death penalty. “While this...

By Clare Algar, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy and Policy Abdulkareem al-Hawaj from Saudi Arabia was 16 when he allegedly took part in anti-government protests in the country’s Shi’a majority Eastern Province in 2012. Two years later, the teenager was arrested and...

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea must halt decades of human rights violations and abuses including torture, arbitrary detentions and unlawful killings, Amnesty International said today, 40 years after President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo seized power.  Equatorial Guineans who turn 40 this year...

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea must halt decades of human rights violations and abuses including torture, arbitrary detentions and unlawful killings, Amnesty International said today, 40 years after President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo seized power.  Equatorial Guineans who turn 40 this year...