Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to reveal publicly the number of people it executes each year. In its annual report on the death penalty worldwide, Amnesty says thousands of executions likely took place in China in 2009. But it points out that information on the death penalty remains a Chinese state secret.
China is said to be the world’s largest executioner, putting more people to death than the rest of the world altogether. The Amnesty report says at least 714 people were executed last year in 18 countries.
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director Philip Luther says that some countries are using capital punishment to send political messages, silence opponents or promote political agendas.
Amnesty reported a spike in executions in Iraq to 120 last year while Iran remained the biggest executioner in the region, putting at least 338 people to death. The United States, the report points out, is the only country in the Americas to consistently carry out executions – with 52 last year.
In 2009, Europe had its first year without executions since Amnesty has been keeping records. Belarus is the only European country that continues to impose the death sentence. Two weeks ago, it executed two people.
Amnesty International’s interim secretary-general, Claudio Cordone, calls the death penalty “cruel and degrading.” The report for 2009 notes that fewer countries are carrying out executions. As Cordone puts it, the death penalty is “on its way out.”
