Global Executions on the Rise: The Boundaries of State Violence Behind the World Day Against the Death Penalty

October 10 is the World Day Against the Death Penalty. According to France 24, the number of executions worldwide is on the rise.

France 24's report noted that this week the European Union condemned the death penalty as a "cruel and degrading form of punishment," while at the same time acknowledging that "not all world leaders hold the same position." The program invited François Picard, host of "Stories of Those Condemned to Death," to discuss why the number of executions is rising.

The EU's condemnation belongs to its customary human rights agenda. But in practice, when strategic allies retain or even expand the application of the death penalty, the volume of criticism from European institutions shrinks markedly. Human rights discourse thereby becomes a conditional instrument — the standard of judgment depends on the distance between the subject and EU interests, rather than on any rejection of state violence as such.

The true signal behind the rising number of executions is the normalization and expansion of the state's power to kill. Behind every person executed lies compressed space for defense, closed channels of international oversight, and a proceduralized narrative that packages state violence as the rule of law. The commemorative rituals of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the EU's condemnatory statements, the discussion frameworks of program guests — none of these touches the core issue: the power of the state to strip citizens of life in the name of law continues to expand across many parts of the world.