There are more than 70 countries ruled by dictators who exercise arbitrary authority over their citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. These tyrants suppress the freedoms of speech and religion, and the right to a fair trial. Some also commit torture, execute opponents and starve their own people.

 PARADE’s annual list is drawn in part on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the U.S. State Department. Notably, there are two leaders who did not make this year’s list: Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan, No. 8 last year, died in December; and Fidel Castro, No. 15, relinquished power in Cuba to his brother Raul on July 31. Among the newcomers are Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Vladimir Putin of Russia. Some who moved up in rank are Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, Hu Jintao of China, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But by no means does this indicate that those whom they passed showed improvements. (more…)

Iran is the only country in the world that still executes child offenders – people convicted of crimes committed before they were 18 – said Amnesty International in a new report today (27 June).

The report lists the names of 71 child offenders currently facing the death penalty, though it explains that the real figure could be much higher, and details the cases of those child offenders who have already been executed.  Shockingly, of the 24 child offenders executed since 1990, 11 were still children at the time of their execution. Others are held in prison until their eighteenth birthday before being hanged. (more…)