Understanding politics across borders and divides
Last Updated: July 2026 Overview No one has been executed anywhere in the Americas outside the United States since December 2008, when Saint Kitts and Nevis hanged Charles Laplace in what became the region’s last execution outside US jurisdiction. In the same hemisphere, the United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, its highest annual … Read more
Last Updated: July 2026 Overview Africa has abolished the death penalty faster than any other region in the world over the past two decades. More than half of the continent’s states, 29 out of 54, have removed it entirely, and Chad, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Ghana and Zimbabwe all did … Read more
Last Updated: July 2026 Overview Two Middle Eastern countries accounted for almost all of the world’s recorded executions in 2025. Amnesty International documented at least 2,707 executions globally, the highest figure since 1981 and a 78% rise on 2024, with Iran responsible for at least 2,159 and Saudi Arabia for at least 356. Together those … Read more
Last Updated: July 2026 Overview Asia holds both the largest number of executions in the world and the most active abolition movement outside Europe, and the two facts sit in different countries. Seven states in the Asia-Pacific carried out executions in 2025, up from five the year before, with at least 796 new death sentences … Read more
Overview The world is moving away from the death penalty in law while a small group of countries uses it more than ever. By the end of 2025, 113 countries had abolished capital punishment for all crimes and 145 in total had abolished it in law or practice. That is more than two-thirds of the … Read more