GENEVA

The UN human rights chief on Tuesday called for a moratorium and abolition of the death penalty, warning about a "substantial increase" in global executions.

"The death penalty is a practice that should have no place in the 21st century. While a number of countries argue that it lies within their national sovereignty, from my perspective, it is incompatible with human dignity and the right to life," Volker Turk said at the biennial high-level panel discussion on the death penalty under the 58th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Underlining that the UN opposes all forms of the death penalty, Turk said: "I am very sorry to report that there has been a substantial increase in global executions since we last met two years ago."

In 2023, 1,153 executions took place in 16 countries -- a 31% increase from 2022 and "the highest number" in the past eight years, he said. That followed a 53% increase in executions between 2021 and 2022, he added.

According to the human rights chief, the top executing countries over recent years include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the US.

He said the figures do not include China, where there is a lack of transparent information and statistics on the death penalty.

"I call on the Chinese authorities to change this policy and join the trend towards abolition," he said.

40% of executions drug-related

More than 40% of these killings -- the highest number since 2016 -- are for drug-related offences, Turk said, arguing that this proportion has also risen sharply over the past two years, and almost all of these executions took place in Iran.

"Drug-related offences do not meet the standard set by international human rights law, which only refers to the most serious crimes, involving intentional killing," he said.

The human rights chief also highlighted growing momentum toward abolition of the practice.

"Set against the deeply worrying increase in executions, there is a large and growing global majority against the death penalty," he said, noting that 113 countries have fully abolished capital punishment, with the Global South now leading the abolition movement.

"I commend the government of Zimbabwe for joining 26 other countries in Africa that have abolished the death penalty," he said, also recognizing progress in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Zambia.

Turk pointed to a record 129 UN member states voting in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2024 as evidence of shifting global attitudes.

He called on countries that still use capital punishment to introduce a moratorium as a first step toward abolition and to ensure it is reserved only for "the most serious crimes." He also urged judiciaries to exercise discretion in favor of alternative sentences, stressing that "the death penalty does little to serve victims or deter crime."