Both Iran and Saudi Arabia increased executions past year by 31 and 76 percent respectively, when compared to the number of people put to death in the countries in 2014.
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An additional 38 countries have abolished the death penalty in practice.
In addition, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Kenya and South Korea considered legislation to abolish the death penalty, it said.
“The spike in executions, particularly in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, leads to this global number that is so much larger than we’ve ever seen in recent years but that belies the fact that it’s happening in such a small number of countries around the world”, Clark said.
Last year, the Foreign and Commonweatth Office’s most senior civil servant made a frank admission to MPs that human rights “is not one of our top priorities” and that the “prosperity agenda is further up the list”. Its Death Penalty Report 2015-16, to be released on Wednesday, says the number shows an alarming 54 per cent increase over the previous year.
Last week, The Independent revealed that Saudi Arabia has already executed 82 people this year following the mass killing of 47 people in January, meaning that it is on course to behead twice as many prisoners as it did in 2015.
“We are deeply alarmed by this dramatic surge”, Amnesty International’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio told DW.
Four of the men were convicted of banditry, a crime that is punished in Saudi Arabia by having alternate limbs cut off on opposite sides of the body, followed by beheading and the display of the corpse.
Chad, which had not executed anyone for more than a decade, resumed executions and put ten people to death.
The USA executed 28 people – its lowest number of executions for 25 years, while The Republic of Congo, Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname all abolished the death penalty last year.
The rash of executions in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was in stark contrast to a long-term trend toward the abolition of the death penalty and de facto moratoriums on capital punishment in a growing number of countries.
Although the United Kingdom formally opposes the death penalty, the government has been accused of putting its trade relations with countries with poor human rights records first. “It also risks fuelling extremism”.
According to the report, it is impossible to get comprehensive figures from some countries, including Syria, because of the ongoing war.
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In March 2015, the government confirmed it was changing its policy and executions were resuming for all capital crimes.
