JAKARTA: The death penalty is deemed a human rights violation. The Declaration of Human Rights clearly states the right to life as a non-derogable right. There are about 140 countries that abolished the death penalty in 2012, but surprisingly that did not lower the number of executions around the globe, as reported by Amnesty International.
There were 773 executions in 2013 implemented in 22 countries around the world. This was higher compared to 2012 when the number was 682 executions. The number rose by almost 15% in 2013 compared with 2012 – a distressing figure.