As the world takes the momentous step of abolishing the death penalty with at least 128 countries abolishing it in law or practice by early 2007, Iraq has now become the country with the fourth highest number of executions after China, Iran and Pakistan, with the execution of at least 65 people last year.

Since the reintroduction of the death penalty there in August 2004, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death in Iraq and at least 100 people have reportedly been executed. At least 65 people, including at least two women, were reportedly executed in 2006. Iraq now figures among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006.

In many cases, death sentences have been issued following proceedings which failed to meet international fair trial standards. While the trial before the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal and subsequent executions of former President Saddam Hussein and three of his co-accused gained much public attention and generated international criticism, less attention has been given to the more than 250 people who have been sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCI); including at least 85 who have been executed.

Amnesty International is concerned that many of those sentenced to death by the CCCI did not receive a fair trial. Shortcomings in cases before the CCCI which resulted in the imposition of the death penalty have included: pre-trial televised 'confessions', confessions allegedly obtained through torture or ill-treatment and insufficient access to lawyers. Further, pre-trial televised 'confessions' were also reported in connection with a trial in the Kurdish-controlled region in which 11 people were sentenced to death; they were executed in September 2006.

Under the government of Saddam Hussain, the death penalty was applicable for a wide range of offences and was used extensively. Amnesty International was never able to establish precisely how many people were sentenced to death and executed under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi authorities provided no detailed figures and often did not make it public when executions were carried out. However, it is known that those executed under Saddam Hussein's administration included members of banned political parties and other suspected government opponents, students, army deserters, civilians arrested as hostages and foreigners, and even children

Following the US-led invasion of Iraq the death penalty was suspended in June 2003 but reinstated by the Iraqi Interim Government in August 2004. In addition to Decree 3 of 2004 providing for the restoration of the death penalty, the Iraqi authorities and the Kurdish regional government enacted anti-terrorism laws in 2005 and 2006, respectively. These laws provide the death penalty, among others, for offences not resulting in death, such as abductions not resulting in death.

Amnesty International is concerned that these legal provisions fail to meet international human rights standards relating to the use of the death penalty.

The restoration of the death penalty in Iraq represents a profoundly retrograde step, and one that should not be overlooked simply because far larger numbers of lives have been lost due to on-going violence. The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and the ultimate violation to the right to life; furthermore, it is not an effective deterrent against violence and crime, as the continuing crisis in Iraq underlines.

The Iraqi government must immediately establish a moratorium on executions, commute all pending death sentences and ensure that the most rigorous standards for fair trial are respected in all cases.

The dramatic increase in use of the death penalty represents a dangerous slide into the brutal errors of the past, particularly when so many executions have come after unfair trials, televised 'confessions' and uninvestigated allegations of torture. Despite official justifications of the death penalty as a deterrent, rising violence on Iraqi streets suggests that its reinstatement may simply have contributed to the brutalisation of Iraqi society.

The writer is executive director, Amnesty International Malaysia.