The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, lamented the dramatic increase in executions globally over the past two years, explaining that Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that carries out the most executions. He explained that executions carried out in 2023 increased 31% compared to the previous year, the highest number in eight years.
During the periodic high-level debate on the death penalty on February 25, 2025, during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, Türk said that the death penalty is incompatible with human dignity and the right to life.
Türk explained that more than 40 percent of these executions are for drug-related offenses, and this percentage has also risen sharply over the past two years. He noted that these crimes do not meet the standard set by international human rights laws, which refer only to the most serious crimes, which include premeditated murder. He noted that criminologists and experts have shown beyond any doubt that the use of the death penalty leads to the execution of innocent people.
Türk emphasized that there is a large and growing global majority against the death penalty, with 113 countries having completely abolished it. But in the face of this clear progress towards more humane forms of criminal justice, the few countries that continue to impose and carry out the death penalty are carrying out more executions, and this affects beyond those executed, their families and loved ones.
Türk stressed that the death penalty is often discriminatory, with a disproportionate impact on racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, and that it supports and reinforces the broader social and economic discrimination faced by marginalized communities. In some contexts, the presence and threat of the death penalty can have a chilling effect
In countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty, the judiciary plays a key role in ensuring that it is not applied arbitrarily, especially to people whose guilt has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Governments should take all possible measures to avoid wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, review procedural barriers to reviewing verdicts, and re-examine cases based on new evidence, he said.
Türk called on countries that still apply the death penalty to impose a moratorium on executions, called on judicial authorities to work on alternative sentences, and emphasized that executions should only be carried out for the most serious crimes, namely crimes of exceptional gravity involving intentional killing.
The High Commissioner emphasized that the death penalty does not serve victims or deter crime, and even the best judicial processes carry the risk of miscarriage of justice. When the death penalty is used, that error can result in the killing of an innocent person.
The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights notes that UN reports periodically confirm Saudi Arabia's responsibility for the world's high number of executions. Despite the grave violations that accompany the application of this punishment, Saudi Arabia continues to promote that it is making radical reforms on human rights issues. The organization explains that Saudi Arabia continues to carry out the death penalty widely, for crimes that are not considered among the most serious, and against the most vulnerable groups, and since the beginning of 2025, it has carried out 65 sentences, 33 of them on drug charges, while it officially announced during the universal periodic review its intention to continue to carry out these sentences despite the violation of international law.