China Execution Rate Highest in the World

Amnesty International published their report on Tuesday, and clearly stated that China alone executes more people in a year that the whole world combined. Executions in China is a state secret, but Amnesty wants them to divulge the exact figure regarding the executions they carry out. Simple reason being China executions seem to be a more worrying factor for Amnesty than any other country in the world.

Amnesty revealed that China executed at least 1,178 people in the year 2008, while the rest of the world combined carried out just 672 death sentences. The year 2009 saw 714 people being executed around the world, with Iran leading with 388 cases. Figures related to China are unknown, though Amnesty believes it could be well in the thousands. Claudio Cordone, Amnesty's interim secretary-general said, "The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won't they tell the world how many people the state put to death?"

In 2009, executions by means of lethal injection, firing squad, beheading, stoning, hanging and electrocution were carried out by 17 other countries, namely Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Besides, 2000+ individuals were sentenced to death the world over last year. On the flip side, Europe has the distinction of not carrying out a single execution in 2009, and Belarus remains the only country in the continent to have the death penalty going. In the American continent, the USA was the only country to carry out executions. Another noteworthy fact is that Kenya converted the death penalty of more than 4,000 convicts to life imprisonment. This feat was termed as "the largest mass commutation of death sentences ever known", by Amnesty.

Amnesty argues that many executions that are carried out are against minorities, religions, etc. politically motivated, and trials conducted hastily, if at all. (read: Death Penalty Pros and Cons). At present 97 countries have banned capital punishment.