Global executions more than doubled in 2025, reaching their highest recorded level in over 40 years as countries including the US, Saudi Arabia and China fuelled what Amnesty International described as an ‘alarming spike’ in the use of the death penalty.
According to Amnesty’s latest annual review of capital punishment, at least 2,707 people were executed across 17 countries during the year – the highest number documented by the organisation since it began monitoring executions in 1981.
The figure marked a dramatic rise from the at least 1,518 executions recorded in 2024, with Amnesty blaming a small group of states for driving
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