At least 2 148 people were executed in 2005 despite the majority of the world’s countries having abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
In its annual report on the state of the world’s human rights, Amnesty said that at least another 5 186 people were sentenced to death last year, though ”the true figures were certainly higher”.
Amnesty said 122 countries have now abolished capital punishment in law or in practice. About 86 of those countries have got rid of the death penalty for all crimes.
Executioners used various means, including hanging, firing squads, lethal injections and beheading. Among those put to death were children and people with mental disabilities, Amnesty said.
Ninety-four percent of executions took place in China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States.
Drug smuggling, embezzlement and fraud were some of the crimes for which capital punishment was imposed, Amnesty said.
Mexico and Liberia abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2005, Liberia being the last to do so in September.
Amnesty raised its particular concern over the inherent risk of executing innocent people.
In 2005, both China and the United States released people who were awaiting execution on death row but had been wrongly convicted.
China also acknowledged that innocent people had been executed, while people were put to death in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan reportedly without being given the benefit of due process of law, Amnesty said.
”Discrimination based on a wide range of characteristics such as ethnicity, religion and poverty manifested itself at every stage of the death penalty process,” the group said in its report.
In some countries, people were not even told they were going to be executed until a few hours before their death, with Japan cited.
And in Iran, at least eight people were executed for crimes committed when they were less than 18 years old, with at least two children under the age of 18 when they were hanged, Amnesty said.
The organisation said progress had been made towards abolishing the punishment at the United Nations level. UN resolution 2005/59 affirmed the right to life and said that abolition was ”essential for the protection of this right”, Amnesty said.
The resolution ”came the closest yet to condemning the death penalty as a violation of human rights”.
Amnesty said the abolition campaign also gained strength in 2005 through the third World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, marked in 50 countries with demonstrations, petitions and concerts. – Sapa-AFP