The world-wide trend towards abolition of the death penalty continued in 2012, rights group Amnesty International said in a report published Wednesday, despite an increase in some countries. At least 682 people were executed in 2012, two more than in 2011, the group said in its annual report on the death penalty. But only 1,722 death sentences were imposed in 58 countries, compared to 1,923 in 63 countries the year before.
China executed more people than the rest of the world put together, Amnesty said, though because of the secrecy in which executions are carried out it could not give an a exact figure. The rights group believes executions there could have numbered thousands. Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States were in the top five countries with the highest numbers of executions.
The report described the resumption in the carrying out of the death penalty after long execution-free periods in India, Japan and Pakistan as "disappointing setbacks". It said there was an alarming rise in the use of capital punishment in Iraq, where with 129 executions, almost double the number of people were put to death than in 2011. Some 21 countries carried out the death penalty in 2012, the same as in 2011 but down from 28 in 2003. In the United States, nine states carried out executions in 2012, compared with 13 in 2011, while Connecticut became the 17th state to abolish the death penalty.