Last year in March, Saudi Arabia carried out 81 executions in a single day. Most those executed were labeled as members of terrorist organizations, with the rest convicted of other capital crimes such to rape or murder. Such brutal days have sparked international concern about Saudi Arabia’s standing on human rights. Amnesty International’s latest report shows that about 883 people were executed in 2022, the highest total in the past five years and roughly double the figure from the previous year. Executions in the region are overwhelmingly concentrated in a small number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, with China often noted as well but not fully disclosed in public data.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, along with a few other nations, together account for roughly 800 executions in 2022. The regime in Tehran is estimated to have carried out 576 executions in 2022, up from 314 in 2021. Saudi Arabia reportedly executed 196 people in 2022, an increase from 65 in the prior year. Amnesty International highlights that this level of executions marks the highest tally seen in three decades. In Egypt, while death sentences rose by about 51%, actual executions dropped by around 71% compared with 2021, resulting in a total of about 24 executions that year in the country once known as the land of the Pharaohs.
Amnesty International has tracked its work against the death penalty since 1977, when just 16 countries had abolished it. By 2023, 112 countries had abandoned this form of punishment. The organization emphasizes ongoing hope that the death penalty can be eliminated worldwide, and explains the reasons behind their stance and ongoing efforts.
— Amnesty International
“Countries in the Middle East and North Africa region have, at times, violated international law as executions rise while human life is at risk,” remarked Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement. “Across the region, the number of people deprived of life has increased significantly,” she added. The report notes that the majority of those executed in Saudi Arabia were accused of terrorism or related offenses. At least 13 of the 883 executions in 2022 were of women. The year also saw executions in Iran and other regional states as authorities pursued aggressive measures against those they deemed threats to security.
United States reports comparatively lower but persistent activity
By late 2022, Tehran’s response to protests had intensified, with observers describing it as a desperate attempt to quell popular uprisings. Callamard criticized the authorities for using executions to silence dissent. She urged governments and the United Nations to apply pressure to safeguard international guarantees and to ensure accountability for violations. While overall execution numbers rose in the region, the annual death penalty total in the United States declined relative to historical patterns, with the latest counts showing a modest increase compared with 2021 but remaining far below peak levels seen in some earlier periods.
Amnesty notes that data gaps remain for certain states, including China, where thousands of executions are believed to occur annually but remain difficult to quantify due to restricted access and opaque reporting. The three leading Middle Eastern countries remain the focus of the report, followed by the United States, which registered an uptick yet still sits amid a long-term trend of lower execution totals than in the worst years of the past. Other nations such as Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen also report lower figures than in the previous year, while some countries in the region continue to withhold complete information about their use of the death penalty.