At least 270 people have been sentenced to death since mid-2004, often after unfair trials the report says, and more than 100 people have been hanged.
Only China, Iran and Pakistan used the death penalty more frequently.
Iraqi officials have dismissed criticism, saying that capital punishment is an intrinsic element of implementing an Islamic criminal code.
(MG) I'd have liked to have seen an interview with an Iman to see just how intrinsic an element capital punishment is to an Islamic criminal code.
One of Iraq's most senior judges, Jafar al-Musawi, said the use of capital punishment was enshrined in the Iraqi constitution. He said that prisoners in Iraq had more rights than in many western countries.
(MG) Enshrined in the Iraqi constitution. Jafar can really twist a phrase. Plus ... Iraqi prisoners had more rights ... so, we've brought the freedom to Iraq to return to the way things were back in the days before the fall of Sadam. So, if things don't work out to well for Jafar, and things don't work out too badly for governor bush, Jafar can be rehabilitated as a GOP speech writer.
A government spokesman said all executions followed the letter of the law and were carried out with total transparency.
(MG) as long as the executions follow the letter of the law and are carried out with total transparency, then I suppose I'll have to be fine with it.
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Iraq's interim government reintroduced the death penalty in 2004 saying it would act as a deterrent in view of the grave security situation in Iraq.
However, Amnesty International says the extent of violence has increased rather than diminished, and argues that the death penalty may have contributed to the brutalisation of Iraqi society.
(MG) nice to see were are bringing freedoms to Iraqi women - freedom to be executed.
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The report cites several cases in which defendants were convicted after trials lasting just one or two hours, on the basis of earlier confessions which they had retracted, saying they were the result of torture.
(MG) and a very efficient court system, which wastes no time coming to verdicts, and has what it takes to elicit confessions ... no namby pamby Miranda gonna stop the show in Iraq.
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Many of those given death sentences appeared on an Iraqi television show, Terrorism in the Grip of Justice, which was taken off the air in late 2005 after government ruled that televising confessions was illegal.
(MG) what an interesting reality TV concept.
Many of those appearing on the show bore signs of torture, the report said, and other defendants have alleged that they were tortured before making the confessions.
(MG) efficient police interrogation methods at work. What a legacy we are leaving.
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