{"id":40873,"date":"2025-04-10T21:05:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=40873"},"modified":"2025-04-10T21:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:36:00","slug":"report-death-sentences-and-executions-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-04-2025\/report-death-sentences-and-executions-2024","title":{"rendered":"Report-Death Sentences and Executions 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity &amp; Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Amnesty International has released its report, <strong>Death Sentences and Executions 2024.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Findings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Global Execution Statistics: <\/strong>In 2024, 1,518 people were executed <strong>across 15 countries, <\/strong>marking the <strong>highest number since 2015.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is an increase by <strong>32%<\/strong> in recorded executions <strong>compared to 2023.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reason for Spike: <\/strong>Weaponization of the death penalty to silence dissent, punish minorities, and crack down on drug-related offences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Key Countries Leading the Surge: <\/strong>Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq were responsible for 91% of global executions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Death Penalty as a Tool of Fear: <\/strong>The report condemned the use of the death penalty as a political tool rather than for justice.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>China topped the global list for executions,<\/strong> followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The authorities of China continued to balance secrecy on information on the death penalty with occasional disclosures around certain types of cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drug-Related Executions:<\/strong> Over 40% of global executions in 2024 were for drug-related offences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Declining Global Use of the Death Penalty: <\/strong>Despite the rise in executions, the number of countries carrying out executions remained low at 15 for the second consecutive year.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>145 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Death Sentence in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>In 2024, for the second consecutive year<\/strong>, the Supreme Court of India <strong>didn&#8217;t confirm any death sentence,<\/strong> revealed a report from <strong>Project 39A of the National Law University Delhi.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Prisoners on Death Row in India<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"726431\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"409\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Prisoners-on-Death-Row-in-India.webp\" alt=\"Prisoners on Death Row in India\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-40874\" style=\"--dominant-color: #726431; width:295px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Prisoners-on-Death-Row-in-India.webp 409w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Prisoners-on-Death-Row-in-India-300x248.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In India, capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is carried out by <strong>&#8220;hanging by the neck until death&#8221;.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Several countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, France and Australia <\/strong>have moved towards <strong>abolishing executions<\/strong>, countries like the<strong> US, Iran, China and India <\/strong>have retained a <strong>legal framework <\/strong>to enable the death penalty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Capital punishment, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated should be used only in the <strong>rarest of rare cases, <\/strong>was <strong>last carried out in 2020 in the Nirbhaya case.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2018Rarest of rare\u2019 Doctrine in India:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1972 &#8211; Jagmohan Singh vs. State of U.P.: <\/strong>The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1980 &#8211; Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab: <\/strong>The Court introduced the <strong>\u2018rarest of rare\u2019 doctrine, <\/strong>stating the death penalty should be imposed only in exceptional cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1983 &#8211; Machhi Singh vs. State of Punjab: <\/strong>The Supreme Court clarified the \u2018rarest of rare\u2019 doctrine and identified<strong> five categories of crimes where the death penalty may be justified:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Manner of committing the murder: <\/strong>Extremely brutal and dastardly murders.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Motive of the murder: <\/strong>Committed for a motive showing total depravity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Socially abhorrent nature of the crime:<\/strong> When a murder targets a minority community and raises social wrath.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Magnitude of the crime<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Victim:<\/strong> When the victim is particularly vulnerable, such as a child, woman, or elderly person.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Global Framework on Death Penalities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): <\/strong>Allows the death penalty in limited circumstances but stresses that nothing in this article should delay or prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1984 &#8211; UN Safeguards: <\/strong>The UN Economic and Social Council adopted Safeguards guaranteeing the rights of individuals facing the death penalty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1989 &#8211; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR: <\/strong>The UN General Assembly adopted this protocol, urging member states to abolish the death penalty.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>States that ratified agreed not to execute anyone within their jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>UN General Assembly Resolutions (2007-2018): <\/strong>It urged countries to:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Respect international standards protecting the rights of those facing the death penalty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Progressively restrict its use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduce the number of crimes punishable by death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>For the first time, more than two thirds of all UN member states<\/strong> voted in favour of the tenth General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/governance\/governments-weaponising-death-penalty-as-executions-highest-in-nearly-a-decade-study\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Amnesty International has released its report, Death Sentences and Executions 2024.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Major Findings<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Global Execution Statistics: In 2024, 1,518 people were executed across 15 countries, marking the highest number since 2015.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It is an increase by 32% in recorded executions compared to 2023.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-04-2025\/report-death-sentences-and-executions-2024\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40897,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873\/revisions\/40897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}