“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,” the High Commissioner told Member States, during a discussion about the contribution of judiciaries to advancing human rights over the issue.

The punishment had “no place” in the 21st century, Mr. Turk, continued, noting that “the top executing countries over recent years” include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the United States.

Clear evidence

Latest UN data indicates that in 2023, 1,153 executions took place in 16 countries, representing a 31 per cent increase from 2022 and the highest number in the past eight years.

“That followed a 53 per cent increase in executions between 2021 and 2022,” the High Commissioner said, adding that the figures do not take into account 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.”

Global South leading abolition

Although drug-related offences do not meet the “most serious crimes” justification for executions under international human rights law, they account for more than 40 per cent of death penalty executions – the highest number since 2016.

“This proportion has also risen sharply over the past two years, and almost all of these executions took place in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr. Türk explained.

In more positive developments and despite a global rise in executions, a growing number of countries are abolishing the practice – spurred by the Global South.

Today, 113 countries have scrapped the death penalty completely. This includes Zimbabwe – where President Emmerson Mnangagwa approved a law ending executions at the end of 2024 – along with 26 other countries in Africa.

Key to abolition are judicial reform and discretion in commuting executions to lesser punishments, the High Commissioner insisted. Malawi and Malaysia have implemented such reforms, leading to fewer death sentences, Mr. Türk continued, as he called for greater efforts globally to ensure fair trials and avoid wrongful convictions.

He urged nations to move towards the complete abolition of the death penalty, advocate for moratoriums, and ensure that the death penalty is only used for the most serious crimes.

Zimbabwe focus

Also addressing the Council, Zimbabwe Attorney General Virginia Mabiza explained that the death penalty had been introduced by colonial rulers in the 18^th century, enduring beyond the country’s independence in 1980.

She said that more than 56 per cent of the population wanted the death penalty to remain in the statute books when asked in 1999, while between 1980 and 2005, 105 convicted offenders were executed.

“Since then, no other executions have been carried out in Zimbabwe, and this can be attributed to policy decisions coupled with judicial discretion against capital punishment,” the Attorney General told the Council.

Ms. Mabiza noted that a wide range of offences had been formerly punishable by the death penalty including conspiracy and attempted robbery, but by 2013, only a murder conviction could lead to death for the convicted offender, in compliance with the UN General Assembly resolution on reducing the number of offences that attract the death penalty.

And pointing to several instances where the Supreme Court in Harare determined that the death penalty constituted a violation of a prisoner’s human rights, Ms. Mabiza said that sentences were “often commuted death sentences to life imprisonment”.

On the opening day of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Secretary-General rounded on “warmongers who thumb their nose at international law, international humanitarian law and the UN Charter”.

To date, Ukraine has seen more than 12,600 civilians killed, many more injured and entire communities reduced to rubble, Mr. Guterres told the UN’s top human rights body. “We must spare no effort to bring an end to this conflict, and achieve a just and lasting peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions, he insisted.

“One by one, human rights are being suffocated,” Mr. Guterres continued, singling out the “autocrats crushing opposition because they fear what a truly empowered people would do”, amid “wars and violence that strip populations of their right to food, water and education”.

Turning to the “precarious” ceasefire in Gaza, the UN chief insisted that a resumption of hostilities must be avoided at all costs for the sake of the enclave’s people who have endured 15 months of constant Israeli bombardment. Mr. Guterres also expressed deep concern about rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers – “and other violations, as well as calls for annexation”.

“It’s time for a permanent ceasefire, the dignified release of all remaining hostages, irreversible progress towards a two-State solution, an end to the occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Gaza as an integral part.”

Silence the guns

In a wide-ranging speech to the world’s top human rights forum, the UN Secretary-General also called for diplomacy and dialogue to help resolve horrific, ongoing rights violations from the Sahel to Myanmar, Haiti and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“We see a deadly whirlwind of violence and horrifying human rights abuses, amplified by the recent M23 offensive, supported by the Rwandan Defense Forces – as more cities fall, the risk of a regional war rises,” Mr. Guterres said. “It’s time to silence the guns; it’s time for diplomacy and dialogue.” 

And amid growing intolerance towards many of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized people – from indigenous peoples, to migrants, refugees, the LGBTQI+ community and persons with disabilities – the UN Secretary-General also criticized the voices of “division and anger” for whom human rights threaten their quest for “power, profit and control.”

Mulitlateralism under strain

Echoing the UN chief’s concerns that human rights are “being pummelled hard”  today, putting at risk 80 years of multilateral cooperation embodied by Organizations, UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned that the international system “is going through a tectonic shift, and the human rights edifice we have built up so painstakingly over decades has never been under so much strain”.

Beyond Ukraine, where Russian attacks have created “wanton destruction”, Mr. Türk told the Council’s Member States that the suffering borne by Gazans and Israelis since the Hamas-led attacks that sparked the war in October 2023 had been “unbearable”.

The UN rights chief also repeated his call for an independent probe into grave violations of international law “committed by Israel in the course of its attacks across Gaza, and by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups”.

Mr. Türk also condemned as “completely unacceptable” any suggestion that people can be forced from their land – amid proposals floated by the United States that Gazans should be resettled outside the devastated Strip.

His comments came on the opening day of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which meets in three scheduled sessions throughout the year. March is traditionally the “high-level” session where top national representatives rub shoulders at the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

Nigh-on six weeks of debates are slated to discuss emergencies in around 40 countries – from Belarus to DR Congo, DPRK/North Korea, Haiti, Sudan, Ukraine and more – along with thematic issues and some 80 reports from top independent rights experts and the UN human rights office, OHCHR – on disability rights, genocide, children in armed conflict and torture, among others – until the 58th session ends on Friday 4 April.

The Human Rights Council is the world’s principal body for discussions and action on human rights. It was founded in 2006 and has 47 Member States, although all 193 countries belonging the UN can take part as observers.