Use of death penalty reducing in the world: Amnesty

A total of 21 countries were recorded as carrying out executions in 2012, the same number as in 2011, but a sharp drop from 28 countries in 2003.

(Photo: blogs.lse.ac.uk)

London:  Even as death penalty is broadly diminishing around the world, some countries, including India, that had not used capital punishment for several years resumed executions last year, said Amnesty International.

The London-based rights group said in its annual survey that besides India, countries like Japan, Pakistan and Gambia resumed executions in 2012.

It also stated that there was an "alarming escalation" in executions in Iraq. At least 129 people were executed in that country last year, almost double the figure of 68 in 2011.

India carried out its first execution since 2004 when Ajmal Kasab, one of the gunmen involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged in November last year.

The report stated that the use of the death penalty continues to be restricted to an isolated group of countries and progress towards its abolition was made in every region of the world.

A total of 21 countries were recorded as carrying out executions in 2012, the same number as in 2011, but a sharp drop from 28 countries in 2003.

In 2012, at least 682 executions were known to have been carried out worldwide, two more than in 2011.

At least 1,722 newly imposed death sentences in 58 countries could be confirmed, compared to 1,923 in 63 countries the year before.

But Amnesty stressed that its figures do not include the thousands of executions that it believes were carried out in China, where details are shrouded in secrecy.

"The regression we saw in some countries this year was disappointing, but it does not reverse the worldwide trend against using the death penalty. In many parts of the world, executions are becoming a thing of the past," said Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International.

"Only one in 10 countries in the world carries out executions. Their leaders should ask themselves why they are still applying a cruel and inhumane punishment that the rest of the world is leaving behind," he said.

Methods of executions in 2012 included hanging, beheading, firing squad and lethal injection.

In Saudi Arabia, the body of one man executed through beheading was displayed in what is known as "crucifixion".

In Japan, three death row inmates were executed in March — followed by another four later in the year — ending a 20-month hiatus in executions there.

Amnesty did, however, note progress in Asia.

Vietnam did not carry out any death sentences, while Singapore observed a moratorium on the death penalty and Mongolia ratified a key international treaty committing the country to abolition.

Source: Times of India