Global executions are falling, but the UK still has a responsibility to condemn the death penalty everywhere

The introduction last week of a new penal code in the Asian state of Brunei has sent shock waves around the world. One of the new penalties under a Sharia legal code is death-by-stoning punishment for those convicted of the “crime” of committing same-sex sexual acts.

Unspeakably cruel and the product of an utterly prejudiced mindset, we can hope, at least, that it will never be enforced. According to our records, Brunei hasn’t carried out an execution since 1957 – a time when capital punishment was still widely-used around the globe, including of course here in Britain.

Brunei’s hideous move is frightening and rightly the cause of international revulsion. But the wider picture is – thankfully – rather better. As our new report on capital punishment around the world shows, though far from extinct the death penalty is in decline.

According to our research, which – because of secrecy, inaccessibility and under-reporting, is necessarily conservative and incomplete - last year there were at least 690 executions in 20 countries. This is a 31 per cent drop from 2017’s total and means 2018 saw the lowest number of executions in more than a decade.

These figures purposely omit China, where death penalty data is classified as a state secret. We believe that thousands of executions take place in China each year – making China easily the world’s most prolific executioner. Yet even here there have reportedly been moves to tighten capital punishment’s use (currently available for 46 offences, some non-violent like “corruption” and drugs offences).

For an organisation like Amnesty International, which unreservedly opposes the death penalty as the ultimate human rights violation, one execution is still one too many. Last year’s drop in execution numbers is hugely welcome. But each and every case has still involved the cruelty of cold-bloodedly condemning a human being to death and many have also seen shoddy, deeply unfair trials. Even worse, in numerous instances individuals have been condemned to death on the strength of “confessions” extracted through torture – one abuse piled on top of another.

But our main findings on the death penalty do offer some hope. If 20 countries carried out executions last year, it means the vast majority of the world did not. In fact, 142 countries have now either abolished the death penalty or have effectively discontinued its use. Last year in Iran – like China one of the world’s biggest executioners – there was a huge (50 per cent) drop in executions following changes to its draconian anti-drugs laws. Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia also saw significant reductions in executions. And Burkina Faso, Gambia and Malaysia all moved to either abolish or permanently halt death penalty use.

Grounds for hope then. In the UK it’s more than half a century since the UK did away with the ghoulish judicial theatre of the judge’s black cap and the “official hangman”. In more recent years the UK has made global abolition a foreign policy aim, which is what made Sajid Javid’s reneging on this position in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh last year all the more disappointing. If you’re promoting abolition of capital punishment around the globe, then there can be no exceptions.

Brunei’s grotesque new penal code reminds us that there is still much to be done. Last year two women in Iran – Zahra Derakhshani and Golestan Jankanlou – were sentenced to death by stoning for the “offence” of adultery.

In global terms, the death penalty is being imposed with reduced frequency and carried out more sparingly. But people are still being taken out and hanged, lethally injected, shot or even beheaded. And in some instances they are being sentenced to death by stoning.

We all – including Javid and the rest of the UK Government – need to be speaking out, whether this is happening in China, Iran, the USA or Brunei.

Kate Allen is the Director of Amnesty International UK