Capital punishment is irreversible. On World Day Against the Death Penalty, we call for abolition
Published: Oct 10, 2026 Reading time: 2 minutes Share: Share an articleWrongful convictions, torture, discrimination and unfair trials continue to shape death penalty cases around the world. On 10 October, World Day Against the Death Penalty draws attention to the people affected and the risks that no justice system can fully eliminate.
Wrongful convictions, coerced confessions and unfair trials remain a reality in countries that retain capital punishment.
The risks are not shared equally. Political pressure, discrimination and unequal access to legal representation shape who is sentenced to death and how fairly their case is heard.
Why abolition still matters
World Day Against the Death Penalty has been marked every 10 October since 2003. It brings together organisations, lawyers, policymakers and members of the public campaigning for its complete abolition.
This year’s theme is Stories for Life. It focuses on people affected by the death penalty, their families and the individual stories that can easily disappear behind statistics and sentences.
There has been significant progress. By the end of 2025, 145 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or no longer carried out executions in practice.
At the same time, recent figures show that progress cannot be taken for granted. Amnesty International recorded at least 2,707 executions in seventeen countries in 2025, 78 per cent more than the previous year.
The real figure is higher, as the statistics do not include thousands of executions believed to have taken place in China and other countries that do not publish official execution figures. . At least 25,508 people remained under sentence of death.
Libya’s worrying return to executions
Libya offers one recent example of these risks. After sixteen years without a known execution, authorities in the east of the country resumed carrying out death sentences this August.
At least thirty men were executed within weeks. According to Amnesty International, they had faced secret and grossly unfair military trials, in some cases involving confessions obtained through torture.
At least fifty more prisoners are believed to be at imminent risk of execution. Libya also retains the death penalty for a broad range of offences.
Cases such as Libya show that continued pressure for abolition remains necessary. Despite decades of global progress, people are still being executed in circumstances where fundamental guarantees of a fair trial are absent.
