Executions surged globally in 2025 to the highest level in 44 years, Amnesty reports, driven by a small group of countries.
Newsroom (19/05/2026 Gaudium Press) Executions worldwide climbed sharply in 2025, reaching their highest recorded level in more than four decades, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The human rights organization documented 2,707 executions across 17 countries during the year, marking the highest figure it has recorded since 1981.
The report, released on May 17 under the title “Death Sentences and Executions 2025,” highlights a troubling reversal amid what Amnesty describes as a broader global trend toward abolishing capital punishment. However, the organization cautioned that its figures do not include what it believes to be thousands of executions in China, which it says remains the world’s leading executioner.
A Concentrated Surge Among Few Nations
Amnesty International attributes the dramatic increase in executions to what it calls a “small, isolated group of countries.” According to Secretary General Agnès Callamard, these nations continue to rely heavily on capital punishment despite global progress toward abolition.
Callamard stated that countries including China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Singapore, and the United States are driving the surge. She characterized their use of executions as a means to “instill fear, crush dissent and show the strength state institutions have over disadvantaged people and marginalized communities.”
Excluding China, the report identifies Iran as the primary contributor to the spike, carrying out at least 2,159 executions in 2025, more than double its total from the previous year. Other countries reported significant numbers as well, with Saudi Arabia executing at least 356 people, while Kuwait and Singapore each carried out 17 executions, and Egypt reported 23 cases. The United States recorded 47 executions during the same period.
Drug-Related Offenses and Global Concerns
A notable finding in the report is that 46% of all known executions worldwide were linked to drug-related offenses. Amnesty has long criticized the application of the death penalty in such cases, arguing that it violates international human rights law.
Callamard warned that the continued use of capital punishment reflects a broader disregard for human rights standards. She described the practice as an “irreversible affront against humanity,” arguing that it is ineffective as a deterrent and disproportionately impacts marginalized populations.
“It’s time for executing countries to step into line with the rest of the world and leave this abhorrent practice in the past,” she said, emphasizing that the death penalty does not enhance public safety.
Context: Renewed Debate in the United States
The report’s release coincides with renewed attention to capital punishment in the United States. Federal prosecutors recently indicated they would seek the death penalty against a suspect accused of killing two people outside a May 21, 2025, event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
This development underscores the continued role of the death penalty in the U.S. justice system, even as debates over its morality and effectiveness persist domestically and internationally.
Religious Opposition and Moral Arguments
The findings also emerge alongside renewed calls from the Catholic Church for the abolition of capital punishment. In an April video message, Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the Church’s long-standing teaching on the sanctity of life, stating that every human life “from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves to be protected.”
He described the right to life as the foundation of all other human rights, arguing that societies flourish only when they uphold this principle.
The Catholic Church’s official teaching firmly opposes capital punishment, considering it incompatible with the inherent dignity of human life. This stance was strengthened in 2018 when Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church, declaring the death penalty “inadmissible” in the modern world and committing the Church to its global abolition.
In his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis further reinforced this position, citing St. John Paul II’s view that the death penalty is both morally inadequate and no longer necessary within modern systems of justice.
A Global Crossroads
Despite the surge in executions, Amnesty International maintains that the long-term global movement still points toward abolition. Nevertheless, the organization warns that the actions of a relatively small group of countries risk undermining decades of progress.
As the debate intensifies across legal, political, and moral spheres, 2025 stands as a stark reminder that the future of capital punishment remains deeply contested. The rising numbers highlight not only a humanitarian concern but also a defining issue in the global struggle over human rights and justice.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from OSV News
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