THE DEATH PENALTY
FOR DRUG OFFENCES:
GLOBAL OVERVIEW 2022
Harm Reduion International (HRI) envisions a
world in which drug policies uphold dignity, health
and rights. We use data and advocacy to promote
harm reduion and drug policy reform. We show
how rights-based, evidence-informed reonses
to drugs contribute to healthier, safer societies,
and why inveing in harm reduion makes sense.
HRI is an NGO with Special Consultative Status
with the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations.
The Death Penalty for Drug Oences:
Global Overview 2022
Giada Girelli, Marcela Jofré,
and Ajeng Larasati
© Harm Reduion International, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-915255-02-0
Designed by ESCOLA
Published by Harm Reduion
International
61 Mansell Street, Aldgate
London E1 8AN
E-mail: o[email protected]
Website: www.hri.global
4
This report would not be possible without data made available or shared
by leading human rights organisations and individual experts and advocates,
many of whom provided advice and assiance throughout the draing process.
We would ecifically like to thank the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for
Human Rights in Iran, Ambika Satkunanathan, the Anti-Death Penalty Asian
Network (ADPAN), the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR),
Juice Proje Pakian (JPP), Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat (LBHM),
Proje 39A (National Law University, Delhi), Reprieve, and Transformative
Juice Colleive.
Thanks are also owed to colleagues at Harm Reduion International for
their feedback and support in preparing this report: Cinzia Brentari, Gen Sander,
Naomi Burke-Shyne, Suchitra Rajagopalan, Ruod Ariete, Catherine Cook, Colleen
Daniels, Gaj Gurung, Lucy O’Hare, Maddie O’Hare, Temitope Salami, and Anne
Taiwo.
Any errors are the sole reonsibility of Harm Reduion International.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Harm Reduion International (HRI) has monitored the use of the
death penalty for drug oences worldwide since our fir ground-breaking
publication on this issue in 2007. This report, our twelh on the subje,
continues our work of providing regular updates on legislative, policy and
praical developments related to the use of capital punishment for drug
oences, a praice which is a clear violation of international andards.
The Global Overview 2022 presents an analysis of key developments
related to the death penalty for drug oences in 2022, with a focus on
analysing and disseminating available figures on drug-related executions
and death sentences. It consis of an overview for each category of
ates, including case udies where relevant, as well as supplementary
analysis of international and national policy developments.
Harm Reduion International opposes the death penalty in all
cases without exception.
INTRODUCTION
5
6
Drug offences (also referred to as drug-related offences or drug-
related crimes) are drug-related activities categorised as crimes under
national laws. For the purposes of this report, this definition excludes
activities which are not related to the trafficking, possession or use of
controlled substances and related inchoate offences (inciting, assisting or
abetting a crime).
In the 35 ates that retain the death penalty for drug oences,
capital punishment is typically applied for the following oences: cultivation
and manufauring, and the smuggling, tracking or importing/exporting
of controlled subances. However, in some of these ates, the following
drug oences may also be punishable by the death penalty (among others):
possession, oring and hiding drugs, financing drug oences, inducing or
coercing others into using drugs.
HRI’s research on the death penalty for drug oences excludes countries
where drug oences are punishable with death only if they involve, or result
in, intentional killing. For example, in Saint Lucia (not included in this report),
the only drug-related oence punishable by death is murder commied in
conneion with drug tracking or other drug oences.
1
The death penalty is reported as ‘mandatory’ when it is the only
punishment that can be imposed following a conviion for at lea certain
categories of drug oences (without regard to the particular circumances of
the oence or the oender). Mandatory sentences hamper judicial sentencing
discretion, and thus, according to international human rights andards, they
are inherently arbitrary.
2
1 Article 86(1)(d)(vi), Criminal Code of Saint Lucia (A 9 of 2004 in force from 1 January 2005).
2 UN Human Rights Commiee, ‘General Comment 36 on the Right to Life’, UN Doc. CCPR/C/GC/36 (3 September 2019),
para 37; UN Commission on Human Rights, ‘Civil and Political Rights, Including the Queions of Disappearances and
Summary Executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Philip Alon’, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2005/7 (22 December 2004),
para. 63-4 and 80.
METHODOLOGY
7
The numbers that have been included in this report are drawn from
and cross-checked again ocial government reports (where available) and
ate-run news agencies; court judgments; non-governmental organisations
(NGO) reports and databases; United Nations (UN) documents; media reports;
scholarly articles; and communications with local aivis and human rights
advocates, organisations, and groups. Unless ecified, the source for all
figures and information provided in this report is an internal HRI dataset on
death sentences and executions for drug oences, available upon reque
from the authors. Every eort has been taken to minimise inaccuracies, but
there is always the potential for error. HRI welcomes information or additional
data not included in this report.
Identifying current drug laws and controlled drugs schedules in some
countries can be challenging due to limited reporting and recording at the
national level, together with language barriers. Some governments make their
laws available on ocial websites; others do not. Where it was not possible
for HRI to independently verify a ecific law, the report relies on credible
secondary sources.
With ree to data on death row
3
population, death sentences, and
executions, the margin for error is even greater. In many countries, information
about the use of the death penalty is shrouded in secrecy, or opaque at be.
For this reason, many of the figures cited in this report cannot be considered
comprehensive, and inead mu be considered as the minimum number of
confirmed sentences, executions, or individuals on death row; real numbers are
higher, in some cases significantly so. Where information is incomplete, there
has been an aempt to identify the gaps. In some cases, information among
sources is discordant due to this lack of tranarency. In these cases, HRI has
made a judgement based on available evidence.
When the symbol ‘+’ is found next to a number, it means that the reported
figure refers to the minimum confirmed number, but according to credible
reports the aual figure is likely to be higher. Global and yearly figures are
calculated by using the minimum confirmed figures.
3 We acknowledge that there is no consensus regarding the definition of ‘death row’ and that dierent authorities and
organisations may colle data dierently. The information provided by HRI may include figures colleed by countries
and organisations according to dierent criteria.
8
CATEGORIES
HRI has identified 35 countries and territories that retain the death
penalty for drug oences in law. Only a small number of these countries carry out
executions for drug oences regularly. In fa, six of these ates are classified
by Amney International as abolitioni in praice.
4
This means that they have
not carried out executions for any crime in the pa ten years (although in some
cases death sentences are ill pronounced), and “are believed to have a policy
or eablished praice of not carrying out executions.”
5
Other countries have
neither sentenced to death nor executed anyone for a drug oence, deite
having dedicated laws in place.
To demonrate the dierences between law and praice among ates
with the death penalty for drug oences, HRI categorises countries into high
application, low application, or symbolic application ates.
4 Brunei Darussalam, Lao PDR, Mauritania, Myanmar, South Korea, and Sri Lanka. See ‘Death Sentences and Executions
in 2021’ (London: Amney International, 2022), page 63 hps://www.amney.org/en/documents/a50/5418/2022/
en/
5 Ibid., pag. 58.
High Application States are those in which
executions of individuals convied of drug
oences were carried out, and/or at lea
ten drug-related death sentences per year
were imposed in the pa five years.
Low Application States are those where,
although no executions for drug oences
were carried out in the pa five years,
death sentences for drug oences were
imposed on nine or fewer individuals in
the same period. Bangladesh, Egypt,
Iraq, Kuwait, and State of Paleine are
low application countries confirmed to
have carried out executions in 2022, but
not for drug oences. The seion below,
therefore, only provides figures on death
sentences and death row populations.
Symbolic Application States are
those that have the death penalty for
drug oences within their legislation
but have not carried out executions
nor sentenced individuals to death
for drug crimes in the pa five years.
Myanmar, South Sudan, and the USA
are symbolic application countries
confirmed to have carried out
executions in 2022, but not for drug
oences.
A fourth category, insucient data,
denotes inances where there is
simply not enough information to
classify the country accurately.
9
Foreword
Executive Summary
2022 in a Snapshot
The Death Penalty
for Drug Oences at
Intergovernmental Fora
Aempts at Reinatement:
The Philippines
The Death Penalty for Drug
Oences: Global Overview
2022
10
16
20
22
25
27
41
50
55
High Application States
Low Application States
Symbolic Application
States
Insucient Data
CONTENTS
10
Abdul Kahar bin Othman. He was 68 years old and ent the bulk of his
life shuling in and out of prison. His brother said that, when he was released
aer a long sentence, he looked like a lo child in a city that had rapidly
developed without him.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam. In the la week of his life, he met his
nephews and niece for the fir time. Deite the pleasure of finally seeing
them, it had been so many years since he’d la seen children, his senses were
a lile overwhelmed by their loud chaering.
Kalwant Singh. He called his niece Kellvina “Baby Girl”, because he’d
raised her in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, even when he was ju a
teenager himself. “Isn’t he handsome?” his sier asked us repeatedly when we
ood over his casket. He was.
Norasharee bin Gous. Hundreds of people turned up for his funeral, so
many that not everyone could enter the mosque. A friend told me that many of
them would have done anything for him, because he had taken care of them.
Nazeri bin Lajim. He was a so-oken, sensitive soul, whose favourite
song was Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N Roses. His drug use began from a
young age, and even predates Singapore’s death penalty for drug oences. If
he could have been released from prison, he would have remarried his ex-wife,
who remained his mo regular visitor until his execution.
Abdul Rahim bin Shapiee. The aernoon before his scheduled hanging,
he participated in a joint hearing with 23 other death row prisoners, suing the
ate for breaching their right to access to juice. The hearing was held on
Zoom, and when the court ood down for the judges to deliberate, he got to see
and joke with his buddies on death row in the virtual room. It was a rare chance
for them, because death row prisoners end mo of their time in single cells.
Aer keeping everyone waiting for seven hours, the judges dismissed the
case and Rahim was hanged hours later. Because of that wait, he lo precious
visitation time with his family and missed his la meal.
FOREWORD
Kiren Han
Journali and Death Penalty Abolitioni
11
These are some of the men hanged in Singapore this year for non-violent
drug oences. There are others whose names I can’t mention, because we
don’t have consent from their families to make their cases public. In total, 11
men were executed by the ate from March to Oober this year.
I begin with them today because this is where our ruggle again the
death penalty for drugs should begin, always.
The death penalty is a syem that forces us to forget our humanity. It
pushes us to think of other human beings as undesirable and diosable. The
Singapore Prison Service keeps death row prisoners in situations of severe
isolation. Access to them is generally limited to immediate family members
and lawyers — journalis and aivis aren’t allowed to visit them, even if they
consent to or desire such visits. Their correondence is rily surveilled.
They are only allowed one visit, about an hour long, every week.
They are rendered voiceless even though they are the ones whose lives
are on the line.
Because they are so oen nameless and faceless, it is easy for
everyone else to treat the death penalty as an abra, theoretical debate. It
is easy for members of the public to write them o as merely “drug trackers”
and “criminals”. It is easy to accept their executions when their exience has
been erased long before they are taken to the gallows.
As aivis and abolitionis, a key part of our work is to push back
again this dehumanisation. In support of and in solidarity with the loved ones
of death row prisoners, we bring their names, their faces, and their messages to
the people. We remind people that everyone is more than their miakes, more
than their regrets.
We need to reduce the psychological diance. We have to remind
everyone that the death penalty is not an academic queion. It is a cold, harsh
reality with the highe akes. Those who seek to kill resent this work that we
do. They hate that we tell the ories of people on death row, showing up the
capital punishment syem for what it really is: a cruelty diroportionately
enaed upon the vulnerable and the marginalised.
By their own admission, the real drivers of the global illicit drug trade —
the drug lords who exploit and move produ with impunity — aren’t the ones
12
being arreed and punished in Singapore. Yet they hate how we highlight this
truth with the ories we tell. They would prefer to hide the data and shroud the
death penalty regime in secrecy and silence.
When they choose opacity over tranarency, they are hiding their shame.
They hide the fa that the majority of death row prisoners are ethnic minorities
— a skew so blatant that ju reading out the names of people on death row,
as we did in April this year, makes it clear for all to see. When they bind all the
prison ocers and counsellors to silence with the Ocial Secrets A, they
seek to hide the pain and trauma that is inflied in Changi Prison and ripples
outwards, all in the name of a supposed deterrent ee unsubantiated by
evidence.
The death penalty is an extraordinary injuice that only works when
people can be persuaded to turn away, avert their gaze, and accept ate
violence. We mu make them turn back, pay aention, and recognise the
inhumanity. Only then can we make people think. Only then can we begin to
change their minds. Only then can we remind them of the compassion in their
hearts.
I end where I begin. I ask you to remember these names that those in
power would like us to forget.
Abdul Kahar bin Othman. Executed 30 March, 2022.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam. Executed 27 April, 2022.
Kalwant Singh. Executed 7 July, 2022.
Norasharee bin Gous. Executed 7 July, 2022.
Nazeri bin Lajim. Executed 22 July, 2022.
Abdul Rahim bin Shapiee. Executed 5 Augu, 2022.
May our memory of them fuel the fight to prevent other names from
being added to this li.
The death penalty is a system that forces
us to forget our humanity. It pushes
us to think of other human beings as
undesirable and disposable.
The death penalty is an extraordinary
injustice that only works when people
can be persuaded to turn away, avert
their gaze, and accept state violence.
We must make them turn back, pay
attention, and recognise the inhumanity.
Kiren Han
Journali and Death Penalty Abolitioni
14 15
High Application
1. China
2. Indonesia
3. Iran
4. Malaysia
5. North Korea (DPRK)
6. Saudi Arabia
7. Singapore
8. Vietnam
Low Application
9. Bahrain
10. Bangladesh
11. Egypt
12. Iraq
13. Kuwait
14. Lao PDR
15. Pakian
16. Sri Lanka
17. State of Paleine
(Gaza)
18. Thailand
19. United Arab Emirates
Symbolic Application
20. Brunei Darussalam
21. Cuba
22. India
23. Jordan
24. Mauritania
25. Myanmar
26. Oman
27. Qatar
28. South Korea
29. South Sudan
30. Sudan
31. Taiwan
32. United States
of America
Insucient Data
33. Libya
34. Syria
35. Yemen
32
21
11
33
29
30
24
COUNTRY
BY COUNTRY
15
12
17
35
16
1
6
18
27
19
22
26
9
23
3
15
2
31
29
5
20
7
4
8
25
10
13
34
16
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Global Overview 2021 revealed that 2021 had ended as a year of mixed
progress. On one side, the number of countries executing people for drug crimes
had reached a decade-low, owing moly to a halt in drug-related executions
in Saudi Arabia and, to some extent, the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other
side, a significant increase in confirmed executions had been recorded, largely
aributable to a surge in Iran.
6
In the course of 2022, the situation sharply
deteriorated.
As of December 2022, Harm Reduion International (HRI) recorded
at lea 285 executions for drug oences globally during the year, a 118%
increase from 2021, and an 850% increase from 2020. Executions for drug
oences are confirmed or assumed to have taken place in six countries: Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Singapore, plus in China, North Korea and Vietnam - on which
exa figures cannot be provided because of extreme opacity. Therefore,
this figure is likely to refle only a percentage of all drug-related executions
worldwide. Confirmed death sentences for drug oences were also on the rise;
with at lea 303 people sentenced to death in 17 countries. This marks a
28% increase from 2021.
These setbacks were not completely unexpeed, nor unprediable. Aer
defending its barbaric policy on the death penalty throughout 2021, Singapore
issued execution warrants again individuals convied of drug tracking in
February 2022. These were eventually ayed aer legal appeals and pleas
from families and civil society, but more execution warrants quickly followed. In
Saudi Arabia, civil society had warned of the risk of resumption in drug-related
executions since the partial moratorium was announced in 2021. When the
Kingdom carried out the wor mass execution in its hiory in March 2022, the
risk became even more apparent. Similarly, Iranian civil society warned of the
risk of a ike in executions, absent persient international pressure.
This regression was met with robu resiance on the ground, as
2022 also featured rong aivism from civil society and viims’ families. In
6. For more details, see Giada Girelli and Ajeng Larasati (2022), ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Oences: Global Overview
2021’ (London: Harm Reduion International), hps://hri.global/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/HRI_Global_
Overview_2021_Final-1.pdf.
17
Singapore, a wave of protes kicked o - one that has rarely been seen in the
country due to extreme limitations on assemblies and routine intimidation of
aivis. This rearmed the key role of civil society in promoting the abolition
of the death penalty. The same aivism materialised online. Groups such
as the Transformative Juice Colleive shed light on the vulnerability and
marginalisation of those facing execution (thus countering the over-simpliic
narrative of the ate);
7
and launched the ‘Stop the Killings’
8
campaign for a
moratorium on the use of capital punishment. These initiatives were met with
hoility and reprisals by the government. Singaporean human rights defenders
were interrogated for potential oences under the Public Order A 2009 for
their advocacy work again the death penalty - a case later dropped;
9
while
lawyers representing people on death row faced arbitrary disciplinary aion and
were ordered to pay prohibitive cos for failed applications.
10
The Singaporean
government also publicly reonded to those criticising the resumption in
executions, including a UN Special Procedure mandate holder and civil society
groups.
11
Similar hoility towards human rights defenders was also observed in
Bangladesh, where the government cancelled the NGO licence of Odhikar, a
prominent NGO already under significant pressure, and virtually the only group
monitoring and reporting on the use of capital punishment in the country. While
not direly related to the organisation’s anti-death penalty work, this new
aack risks further limiting the availability of information on capital punishment
in a country where tranarency is already lacking.
12
In Iran, families of people on death row reportedly confronted an
increasingly repressive ate apparatus by carrying out peaceful protes
again the rising number of executions. In reonse, some were arreed and
detained.
13
7. For example, Kokila Annamalai (4 July 2022), ‘I will fight till the noose is around my neck’ Transformative Juice
Colleive, hps://transformativejuicecolleive.org/2022/07/04/i-will-fight-till-the-noose-is-around-my-neck/.
8. hps://sites.google.com/view/opthekilling?pli=1.
9. CIVICUS (28 June 2022), ‘Singapore: Drop inveigations and cease harassment again human rights defenders’
CIVICUS, hps://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/5881-singapore-drop-inveigations-and-
cease-harassment-again-human-rights-defenders.
10. Davina Tham (23 June 2022), ‘M Ravi among 2 lawyers ordered to pay cos over death row inmates’ case alleging ethnic
bias’ Channel News Asia, hps://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/m-ravi-court-order-pay-cos-death-row-
inmates-ethnic-bias-2765996.
11. For example: ‘Statement by the Permanent Mission of Singapore Regarding Statement from UN Special Procedures
Mandate Holders on the Death Penalty in Singapore’ (24 May 2022), available at: hps://www.mfa.gov.sg/Overseas-
Mission/Geneva/Mission-Updates/2022/05/Statement-by-PM-Singapore-UN-SPMH-on-the-Death-Penalty-
in-Singapore; ‘Statement by the Miniry of Home Aairs in Reonse to the International Drug Policy Consortium’s
Article on the Use of Capital Punishment Again Drug-Related Oences’ (25 November 2022), available at: hps://bit.
ly/3lgO689.
12. Amney International (7 June 2022), ‘Bangladesh: Deregiration of NGO Odhikar detrimental to human rights
work’. Available at: hps://www.amney.org/en/late/news/2022/06/bangladesh-deregiration-of-ngo-odhikar-
detrimental-to-human-rights-work/.
13. HRANA (14 September 2022), ‘Report: Prisoners’ Families Demonrate as Executions Surge’ HRANA, hps://www.
en-hrana.org/report-prisoners-families-demonrate-as-executions-surge/
18
In the context of these regressive trends, initutional aors and fellow
ates have failed to adequately reond. The death penalty for drug oences
received some aention in intergovernmental fora throughout 2022 (including
within a UN Secretary General’s report to the Human Rights Council).
14
Some
executions were met with atements of condemnation from various aors,
including the Oce of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European
Union, and other diplomatic missions. But, these reonses were largely
ad-hoc and symbolic, and widely insucient. In addition, the UN Oce on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – the only UN agency with an explicit mandate on
drug-related maers – failed to take any public position on this praice for
the second year in a row. The fa that these blatant violations of international
andards and ocial commitments avoided almo all political, diplomatic, or
economic repercussions sends a dangerous message to retentioni countries
that executions, and therefore death sentences, can continue with impunity.
While more countries abolished the death penalty in 2022, the use
of capital punishment for drug oences is going in a markedly dierent
direion, impinging on the likelihood of achieving global abolition. Deite the
adoption of a new UN General Assembly Resolution for a moratorium on the
use of the death penalty, with hioric support from 125 countries (compared
to 123 in 2020), known executions for drug oences are back to amounting to
over 30% of all global executions - the highe recorded figures since 2017.
These figures are a call to aion to all aors involved in the fight for
abolition, but primarily to governments and to intergovernmental aors: to
acknowledge the barrier that punitive drug policies represent for the global
fight towards abolition, and to identify and pursue new, influential rategies
to promote the ree of international andards on the death penalty.
14. Human Rights Council, ‘Queion of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General’, UN Doc. A/HRC/51/7 (25 July
2022). For more details, see seion ‘The death penalty for drug oences at intergovernmental fora’ below.
2022 IN A SNAPSHOT
• 35 countries retain the death
penalty for a range of drug oences
worldwide. In 2022, drug-related
executions were confirmed in four
countries (China, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore). Executions are assumed
to have been carried out in North
Korea and Vietnam, but ate secrecy
and censorship in these countries
does not enable confirmation of a
minimum figure.
• Two countries resumed
drug-related executions aer
a short hiatus: Singapore, aer a
two-year pause, and Saudi Arabia,
which reneged on its 2021 declaration
of a moratorium on executions for
non-violent oences.
• At lea 285 drug-related
executions were carried out in
2022 (excluding figures from China,
Vietnam, and North Korea). Deite
being a gross undereimation, this ill
represents a 118% increase from 2021,
and a aggering 850% increase from
2020.
• Drug oences were reonsible
for roughly 32% (or one in three) of
all executions confirmed globally.
This is the highe recorded figure in
six years.
• Almo nine out of ten confirmed
executions for drug oences took
place in Iran.
• 303 death sentences for drug
oences were confirmed in 17
countries (dozens more are likely). This
represents a 28% increase in reported
sentences from 2021.
• At lea 3700 people are currently
on death row for drug oences in 19
countries.
• People who are marginalised,
including because of their
socioeconomic atus, ethnicity,
drug use, mental and/or intelleual
disability, and nationality, continue to
be diroportionately impaed by
the death penalty for drug oences.
For example, In Iran, 40% of those
executed for drug oences identified
as Baluchi. This ethnic group
represents around 2% of the total
population.
• Two countries (Cuba and Sri Lanka)
expanded the applicability of the
death penalty for drug oences in law
in 2022.
• Tranarency remains a critical
issue that hinders monitoring of the
death penalty for drug oences, and
as a consequence advocacy towards
death penalty abolition. Throughout
2022, ates not only failed to publish
complete figures on the death penalty
for drug oences, but also aively
repressed civil society groups,
aivis and lawyers monitoring
and challenging the use of capital
punishment.
KNOWN EXECUTIONS FOR DRUG
OFFENCES GLOBALLY
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
399
327
526
755
369
288
93
116
30
131
285
22
THE DEATH PENALTY
FOR DRUG OFFENCES AT
INTERGOVERNMENTAL FORA
The death penalty for drug oences was addressed at several
intergovernmental fora throughout 2022. At the Human Rights Council, the
praice was assessed - among others - by the Special Rapporteur on Iran,
15
the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
16
and the UN Secretary General
through his report on the ‘queion of the death penalty.’ The report noted the
considerable increase in the application of the death penalty for drug-related
oences globally in 2021, as well as the overrepresentation of persons from
vulnerable and marginalised groups, minorities, foreign nationals and women
among people facing the death penalty for drug oences. Aer reiterating
that the death penalty for drug oences violates international andards, the
recommendation was renewed to ates to “refrain from using [the death
penalty] for crimes not involving intentional killing, such as drug-related
oences.”
17
This measure was also on the agenda of the UN Commission on Narcotic
Drugs (CND), the UN policymaking body reonsible for drug-related maers.
At its regular session in March 2022, at lea 12 countries and a regional group
(the European Union) expressed their opposition to capital punishment in
plenary sessions.
18
Another opportunity for discussion arose with the thematic
intersessional session of September 2022, which addressed human rights
issues. Here, rong atements again the death penalty for drug oences
were delivered by civil society, the European Union, Auralia, the National Drug
15. Human Rights Council, ‘Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman’, UN Doc. A/HRC/49/75 (13 January 2022); Harm
Reduion International (2022), ‘50th Session of the Human Rights Council: Drug Policy Highlights’, hps://hri.global/
wp-content/uploads/2022/10/HRC_50th_Drug_policy_highlights.pdf.
16. 49th Session of the Human Rights Council, Item 2: ‘Annual Report and Oral Update by the High Commissioner for
Human Rights on the aivities of her Oce and recent human rights developments: Statement by Michelle Bachelet’
(7 March 2022), available at: hps://reliefweb.int/report/afghanian/49th-session-human-rights-council-item-2-
annual-report-and-oral-update-high.
17. Human Rights Council, ‘Queion of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General.’
18. For more details, see: Statements at the Opening and General Debate, 65th session of the Commission on
Narcotic Drugs, 14-18 March 2022, available at: hps://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CND/session/65_
Session_2022/general_debate_atements.html; CND Blog, available at: hps://cndblog.org/category/plenary-
sessions/ (la accessed on 8 February 2022).
23
Coordinator of Portugal, the International Narcotics Control Board, and the
Oce of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
At the regional level, the new conclusions of the Council of the European
Union on a human-rights based approach in drug policies encourage all
Member States, bodies, and agencies to “rongly oppose imposition of
diroportionate and inhumane penalties for drug-related oences, such as
the death penalty.”
19
Another noteworthy international development was the adoption of a
new UN General Assembly Resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death
penalty,
20
with hioric support from 125 countries (compared to 123 in 2020),
and 37 votes again (one less than in 2020). Such record-high endorsement
contributes to building international consensus on the urgency of abolishing
capital punishment for all oences.
21
Among the countries in which death
remains a possible punishment for drug oences only one (Myanmar) changed
its position in support of the resolution. Yemen returned to its previous position
again the resolution, aer abaining in 2020.
19. Council of the European Union, ‘Council conclusions on human rights-based approach in drug policies, 15818/22 (9
December 2022), hps://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15818-2022-INIT/en/pdf.
20. UN General Assembly, ‘Moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 15
December 2022’, UN Doc. A/RES/77/222 (6 January 2023). December 2022), hps://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/
document/ST-15818-2022-INIT/en/pdf.
21. For more on the trend, see: WCADP (20 December 2022), ‘9th Resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty: the
trend is growing’ World Coalition Again the Death Penalty, hps://worldcoalition.org/2022/12/20/9th-resolution-for-
a-moratorium-on-the-death-penalty-the-trend-is-growing/.
24
2018 2020 2022
Bahrain - - -
Bangladesh - - -
Brunei Darussalam - - -
China - - -
Cuba abs abs abs
Egypt - - -
India - - -
Indonesia abs abs abs
Iran - - -
Iraq - - -
Jordan abs + +
Kuwait - - -
Lao PDR abs abs abs
Libya + - -
Malaysia + + +
Mauritania abs abs abs
Myanmar abs abs +
North Korea - - -
Oman - - -
Pakian + - -
Paleine n/a n/a n/a
Qatar - - -
Saudi Arabia - - -
Singapore - - -
South Korea abs + +
South Sudan abs abs absent
Sri Lanka + + +
Sudan - - -
Syria - - -
Taiwan n/a n/a n/a
Thailand abs abs abs
United Arab Emirates abs abs abs
USA - - -
Vietnam abs abs abs
Yemen - abs -
UNGA resolutions on moratorium
of the death penalty: voting record
of of countries that retain the
death penalty for drug oences.
+ = in favour;
- = again;
abs = abention
Attempts at Reinstatement:
The Philippines
22. Texts available at: hps://www.congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/?v=bills.
23. Raphael A. Pangalangan (25 Augu 2022), ‘Reviving the death penalty’ Inquirer.Net, hps://opinion.inquirer.
net/156364/reviving-the-death-penalty.
24. Preeti Jha (16 Augu 2020), ‘Philippines Death Penalty: A fight to op the return of capital punishment’ BBC News,
hps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53762570.
25. Phil Robertson (17 November 2022), ‘Philippines Undercounts Recent ‘Drug War’ Deaths’ Human Rights Watch, hps://
bit.ly/3HObYrr.
26. Joseph Peter Calleja (7 Oober 2022), ‘Death penalty revival bid goes to Philippine Senate’ UCA News, hps://www.
ucanews.com/news/death-penalty-revival-bid-goes-to-philippine-senate/99012.
2022 saw national-level discussions on reinating the death penalty for
drug oences in the Philippines.
At the time of writing, a debate is ongoing in Parliament on reinating
the death penalty for drug trackers. Indeed, six bills are pending in the House
of Representatives (bills N 198, 501, 1543, 2459, 4121, 1278).
22
In Oober 2022,
bill N 198, which aims to reintroduce the death penalty as a punishment for
high-level drug trackers, was one of the 20 priority pieces of legislation to go
before lawmakers for debate and resolution. If it passes senate scrutiny, it will
be forwarded to the President for approval.
23
This is the la in a long li of aempts made in recent years by policymakers
in the Philippines - currently an abolitioni country - to reintroduce capital
punishment for drug oences. During Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, between
2016 and 2022, over 20 bills were proposed in Parliament to reintroduce the
death penalty for drug oences, including for possession and sale. The country
also witnessed a brutal crackdown on people sueed of using or selling
drugs during this period, with the President issuing police with “shoot-to-kill”
orders and encouraging citizens to kill people who use drugs.
24
The killings did
not op with the end of the Duterte government: a report by the Third World
Studies Center at the University of the Philippines shows that under the new
government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took oce in June 2022, around 127
people have been killed in “drug war incidents” between July and November
2022.
25
Deite promises to review drug policies with focus on rehabilitation,
no eps appear to have been taken in that direion. On the contrary, the
reintroduion of the death penalty for drug oences has remained high on the
political agenda, moving the country closer to violating its obligations under the
Second Optional Protocol of the ICCPR.
26
The potential revival of the death penalty in the Philippines reminds
us of the urgent need for more comprehensive drug policies and reforms
underpinned by human rights and dignity, in which abolition is not only a goal but
also an essential mileone in the broader reform of the criminal legal syem.
26
THE DEATH PENALTY FOR
DRUG OFFENCES: GLOBAL
OVERVIEW 2022
This seion of the Global Overview provides an overview of how laws are
enforced, applied, or changed in countries that have capital drug laws, by using
the categorisation of high application, low application, symbolic application,
and insucient data. The information presented here updates and builds upon
the data presented in previous editions of the Global Overview.
27
27. Previous editions of this report can be found at: hps://hri.global/flagship-research/death-penalty/.
HIGH APPLICATION
STATES
Executions for drugs
(%age of total)
Death sentences for drugs
(%age of total)
People on death row for drugs
(%age of total)
Country 2022 2021 2022 2021 2022 2021
China Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Indonesia 0 (-) 0 (-) 122 (92%) 89 (78%) 266 (66%) 260 (66%)
Iran 252+
(44%)
131+ (42%) Unknown Unknown 2000+
(unknown)
2000+(unknown)
Malaysia 0 (-) 0 (-) 20+
(unknown)
15+ (unknown) 903 (67%) 927 (68%)
North Korea (DPRK) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Saudi Arabia 22+ (15%) 0 (-) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Singapore 11 (100%) 0 (-) 9+ (100%) 10 (83%) 52 (82%) 30+ (60%)
Vietnam Unknown Unknown 89+ (84%) 87+ (73%) Unknown Unknown
28
The increase in and resumption of executions in high application
countries during 2022 showed, once again, the political nature of the death
penalty (including in its use again drug crimes), and the fragility of any
progressive ep, absent ruural reforms. Meanwhile, initutional reonses
to these developments – or lack thereof - revealed the essential inability (if
not unwillingness) of the international ecosyem to eeively reond to
the violations of international andards and political commitments around
the use of capital punishment, be that by governments through diplomacy or
intergovernmental aors such as the UN.
Throughout 2022, executions are confirmed or assumed to have taken
place in China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Vietnam (six
out of eight countries in this category).
As in previous years, executions were confirmed in China, where drug
oences remain among the main crimes for which people are sentenced to
death. While ate secrecy on the use of capital punishment prevents the
provision of accurate figures on the phenomenon, a rapid scan of initutional
websites and media shows several drug-related executions throughout the
year (the aual figure is believed to be in the dozens, if not hundreds)
28
. That
the death penalty remains a mainream tool of drug control in the country is
once again confirmed by a review of the ‘top ten typical drug cases’ released by
the Supreme Court on the occasion of the 2022 International Day Again ‘Drug
Abuse and Illicit Tracking’.
29
Three of the ten featured cases ended with a
death sentence, and with the defendants (four, in total) being executed in 2022.
One more case from that li resulting in an execution is that of a defendant who
abbed his parents during a “drug-induced hallucination”. The Supreme Court
describes “accidents and disaers, seriously endangering social security and
public safety” as a result of hallucination as a “typical” ee of drug use, and
further refers to drugs as “the real demon that deroys human nature.”
30
Also in line with previous years, drug-related executions are also to be
assumed to have taken place in North Korea and Vietnam, although none could
be confirmed because of ate secrecy or extreme censorship. North Korea
expanded the applicability of the death penalty to the crime of ealing, illegally
selling on the illicit market, or tampering with emergency medicines and raw
materials, among measures to confront a worsening outbreak of COVID-19.
31
28. Based on civil society eimations on the total number of yearly executions, both in general and for drug oences. Among
others, see: China Again the Death Penalty (15 February 2022), ‘The Status Quo of China’s Death Penalty and the
Civil Society Abolitioni Movement’ World Coalition Again the Death Penalty, hps://worldcoalition.org/2022/02/15/
china-death-penalty-2022/; ‘Life and Death: Access to Juice for the Poor in Death Penalty Cases’ (London: The
Rights Praice, 2017), hps://www.rights-praice.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=4c39c7ea-7761-4744-a6ad-
cee845bfd81a.
29. The Supreme People’s Court of The People’s Republic of China (25 June 2022), hps://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-
xiangqing-363401.html [automatic translation].
30. Ibid. [automatic translation].
31. Colin Zwirko (31 July 2022), ‘North Korea: Death penalty for selling COVID medicine’ Genocide Watch, hps://www.
genocidewatch.com/single-po/your-title-what-s-your-blog-about-42.
29
Media reports indicate at lea one person, a door, was executed later in the
year for selling home-produced drugs, including penicillin.
32
A significant uptick in executions took place in Iran. Figures by the
Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran - one of few
independent organisations monitoring and reporting on capital punishment
in the country
33
- reveal a aggering 92% increase in confirmed drug-related
executions between 2021 and 2022. Iran’s relentless resort to violence,
repression, and capital punishment made international headlines throughout
the year because of the brutal government crackdown on the wave of protes
arked by the killing of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
34
This included
the executions of political aivis and dissidents, which were righully met
with wideread condemnation. What garnered less aention was the rise in
drug-related executions.
35
In fa, even in a year of exceptional upheaval and an
equally exceptional resort to capital punishment such as 2022, almo half of
all confirmed executions (44%) were carried out again individuals convied
of drug oences. Worryingly, this is the highe percentage recorded since the
adoption of the 2017 Amendments to the Law for Combating Illicit Drugs.
32. Seulkee Jang (14 November 2022), ‘N. Korean authorities continue to condu public executions of alleged criminals’
Daily NK, hps://www.dailynk.com/english/n-korean-authorities-continue-to-condu-public-executions-of-alleged-
criminals/.
33. For more details, see hps://www.iranrights.org/.
34. Suzanne Kianpour (22 January 2023), ‘The Women of Iran Are Not Backing Down’ Politico, hps://www.politico.com/
news/magazine/2023/01/22/women-rights-iran-protes-00069245.
35. Farnaz Fassihi and Cora Engelbrecht (12 January 2023), ‘The People Executed or Sentenced to Death in Iran’s Prote
Crackdown’ New York Times, hps://www.nytimes.com/article/iran-protes-death-sentences-executions.html;
Maryam Afshang (18 January 2023), ‘Iran protes: 15 minutes to defend yourself again the death penalty’ BBC News,
hps://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-ea-64302726.
30
Consient with previous years, monitoring by the Abdorrahman
Boroumand Centre indicates that around 40% of those executed for drug
oences were of Baluchi ethnicity, deite them accounting for roughly 2%
of the population of Iran.
36
As concluded by Iranian expert Roya Boroumand:
“the diroportionate use of the death penalty again Iran’s Baluchi minority
epitomizes the entrenched discrimination and repression they have faced for
decades and further highlights the inherent cruelty of the death penalty, which
targets the mo vulnerable populations in Iran and worldwide.”
37
All figures on Iran should be used with caution. Tranarency is
extremely limited, and mo information comes from civil society organisations
and aivis, many of whom face considerable threats. The government is
notorious for trumping up charges for political reasons, including by exploiting
and misusing drug laws. Nevertheless, the available figures clearly show that
drug control remains key in the punitive arsenal of the ate.
MINIMUM CONFIRMED EXECUTIONS
IN IRAN FOR DRUG AND OTHER OFFENCES,
Executions for other oences (min. confirmed) Executions for drug oences (min. confirmed)
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0
2012 2014 20162013 2015 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
375
302
480
680
339
222
27
30
24
131
252
36. ‘Iran, Baloch People’ Atlas of Humanity, available at: hps://www.atlasoumanity.com/baloch (la accessed 8
February 2023).
37. Amney International (27 July 2022), ‘Iran: Horrific wave of executions mu be opped’. Available at: hps://www.
amney.org/en/late/news/2022/07/iran-horrific-wave-of-executions-mu-be-opped/#:~:text=The%20UN%20
Special%20Rapporteur%20on,crimes%2C%20rape%20and%20armed%20robbery
31
AN EXECUTION FOR
DRUG OFFENCES IN
IRAN
CASE STUDY
By Abdorrahman
Boroumand Centre
for Human Rights in
Iran
38
The case of Abol Reza Shafiei is emblematic of those who continue to be
exposed to capital punishment for drug oences in Iran, years aer the 2017
reform of the drug law, and again a backdrop of wideread failures of due
process andards. On 18 December 2018, highway patrol ocers aing on a
lead regarding planned smuggling aivity opped Shafiei in his vehicle on the
road from Abrkuh to Shiraz, and recovered jugs of liquid methamphetamine, the
dry weight of which came to 21.2 kilograms. Shafiei told law enforcement that he
was a travelling salesman of maresses and blankets, and that a cuomer had
asked him to ore and tranort two 20-liter containers of bootlegged alcohol
(a non-capital oence). This cuomer had helped Shafiei load the liquid into
his car, promised to escort him on the drive, and paid Shafiei’s children 150,000
tomans (approximately 15 USD at the time) aer Shafiei accepted the job.
Shafiei was tried at Branch Two of the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz,
which sentenced him to death on 28 June 2020. Branch 46 of the Supreme
Court upheld the verdi at appeal on 29 September. Shafiei’s court-appointed
lawyer argued in his defence that Shafiei was not aware of the true nature of the
subance he was tranorting. The courts, citing forensic chemiry reports,
found the recovered methamphetamine, to be pure, and seemingly held
Shafiei reonsible for knowledge of this fa: “there were no impediments or
obacles for him in ascertaining the nature of the drugs he had loaded [into the
car]”, wrote the Supreme Court in its decision. The courts also cited forensic
reports which indicated “all the ages of chemical conversions from liquid to
cryal meth had already been performed by the Defendant,” deite being
unclear how chemical results could possibly have eablished a role for Shafiei
in such produion.
Shafiei was executed at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz on 15 March 2022.
38. hps://www.iranrights.org/.
32
Two other countries made headlines for resuming executions for drug
oences in 2022, namely Saudi Arabia and Singapore. In Saudi Arabia, the
moratorium on drug-related executions announced by Prince Mohammad
Bin Salman in early 2020
39
abruptly ended in November 2022. By the end
of the year, 22 individuals convied of drug oences had been executed, as
confirmed by the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR). In
a worrying departure from usual praice, these include two executions that
were carried out secretly and never ocially announced.
40
Consequently,
the aual figure may be even higher than reported. At lea half of all those
executed were foreign nationals: three from Pakian, four from Syria, two from
Jordan, and two from Yemen. These figures confirm the heightened vulnera-
bility of foreign nationals to death sentences and executions, as reported by
Harm Reduion International in previous years. A new report by ESOHR and
Reprieve reveals that between 2010 and 2021, Saudi Arabia executed “nearly 3
times as many foreign nationals for drug-related oences as Saudi nationals,
deite foreign nationals comprising only 35% of Saudi Arabia’s population.”
41
The same report also sheds light on the marginal position in the drug market of
many, if not mo, foreign nationals executed for drug oences in the Kingdom,
and the inherent ineeiveness of this praice to reduce drug tracking.
In Singapore, drug-related executions resumed, aer a two-year hiatus,
on 30 March 2022, with the hanging of Abdul Kahar bin Othman,
42
a 68-year
old Singaporean from a fragile socio-economic background with a long hio-
ry of drug dependence.
43
Roughly one month later came the execution of
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam,
44
a young Malaysian with an intelleual disabil-
ity whose execution had been scheduled in early 2022 and then suended
following legal challenges and significant international pressure.
45
By Oober
2022, Singapore had executed eleven people, all for drug oences.
This regression was not completely unexpeed, nor unprediable.
The risk was possibly the mo apparent in Singapore, where the government
had aunchly defended its use of capital punishment again people involved
in the drug market during 2021, in reonse to growing criticism of scheduled
39. Ajeng Larasati and Giada Girelli (2021), ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Oences: Global Overview 2020’ (London, Harm
Reduion International), hps://hri.global/flagship-research/death-penalty/the-death-penalty-for-drug-oences-
global-overview-2020/.
40. ESOHR (5 January 2023), ‘Shocking Information: Saudi Arabia Carrying Out Secret Executions’ European Saudi
Organisation for Human Rights, hps://bit.ly/3xfUa3r.
41. ESOHR and Reprieve (2023), ‘Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed bin Salman’s Kingdom of Executions’ (London: Reprieve),
hps://reprieve.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/Bloodshed-and-Lies-Mohammed-bin-Salmans-Kingdom-
of-Executions.pdf.
42. Kiren Han (2 April 2022), ‘Singapore’s fir execution in two years’ We, The Citizens, hps://www.wethecitizens.net/
singapores-fir-execution-in-two-years/.
43. Transformative Juice Colleive (28 March 2022), ‘When will we op killing “small people” who need care?’
Transformative Juice Colleive, hps://transformativejuicecolleive.org/2022/03/28/when-will-we-
stop-killing-small-people-who-need-care/?fbclid=IwAR3S6U8uVxQ2vOK8n8RTW7QQa9egK3ZwG_Lc_
IfRUYu83SdN5LBM18VUYA0.
44. Yvee Tan (27 April 2022), ‘Singapore executes man on drugs charge, rejeing mental disability plea’ BBC News,
hps://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61239221.
45. For more details on the case, see Girelli and Larasati (2022), ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Oences: Global Overview
2021’.
33
executions.
46
Three execution warrants were issued in February 2022. These
fir executions were eventually ayed, but more were issued and carried out,
with the unflinching support of the mo senior levels of government,
47
deite
growing pleas by families and civil society.
48
Civil society had regularly denounced the risk of a resumption in drug-re-
lated executions in Saudi Arabia since the partial moratorium on executions
was announced in 2020, noting the unocial nature of the policy, the perma-
nence of people convied of drug oences on death row, and the fa that
courts continued imposing death sentences for this category of crimes.
49
Fears
of a resumption in drug-related executions came into even sharper focus aer
the execution of 81 people in March 2022 - the large mass execution in the
country’s hiory. It was also anticipated by organisations such as ESOHR.
50
Similarly, aivis have consiently warned of an ongoing surge in
drug-related executions in Iran, absent suained international pressure. As
assessed by the organisation Iran Human Rights in its report on the death
penalty in 2021:
“The 2017 Amendments to the Anti-Narcotics Law, which
resulted from international pressure on the Islamic Republic to
decrease drug-related executions, led to the mo significant
reduion in the number of implemented death sentences in the
Islamic Republic’s hiory. However, the impa of the Amendment
only laed three years [...]. In 2021, the number of drug-related
executions showed a fivefold increase compared to the previous
three years. As this hike has not been met with appropriate inter-
national condemnations, the trend is likely to continue.”
51
46. Ibid.
47. Among others, see: Chris Barre (19 September 2022), ‘“Tell us a beer solution, we will lien”: Singapore defends ate
of executions’ The Sidney Morning Herald, hps://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/tell-us-a-beer-solution-we-will-
lien-singapore-defends-ate-of-executions-20220916-p5biqf.html; Reuters (28 April 2022), ‘Facing international
criticism, Singapore defends Malaysian’s execution’ Reuters, hps://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/facing-
international-criticism-singapore-defends-malaysians-execution-2022-04-28/
48. As an example, see Transformative Juice Colleive (12 May 2022), ‘A plea for clemency from the sier of a death
row prisoner’ Transformative Juice Colleive, hps://transformativejuicecolleive.org/2022/05/12/a-plea-for-
clemency-from-the-sier-of-a-death-row-prisoner/.
49. ESOHR (2022), ‘Saudi executions in 2021: Fluuating political ability’ (Berlin: European Saudi Organisation for Human
Rights), hps://www.esohr.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Saudi-executions-in-2021.pdf.
50. Cathrin Schaer (6 November 2021), ‘Is Saudi Arabia planning a mass execution?’ DW, hps://www.dw.com/en/saudi-
arabia-planning-mass-execution/a-57857488.
51. ECPM and Iran Human Rights (2021), ‘Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2021’ (IHRNGO and ECPM), hps://
www.ecpm.org/app/uploads/2022/08/Rapport-iran-2022-gb-260422-MD3.pdf.
34
International aors have failed to adequately reond to the surge in
executions, with reaions being largely symbolic. Some executions in the
three countries were met with atements of condemnation from the Oce of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, governments,
and diplomatic missions.
52
On its part, the UN Oce on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) failed to take any public position on this praice for the second
year in a row. However, these blatant violations of international human rights
andards and initutional commitments never seemed to face any tangible
political, diplomatic or economic repercussions. As ESOHR concludes, this
was possibly be exemplified by the reverence of many Weern governments
towards Saudi Arabia in 2022:
“At the art of 2022, amid energy crises, global political
upheavals, and the Ukraine war, the ‘diplomatic embargo’ on Saudi
Arabia was broken. Aer French President Emmanuel Macron’s
visit at the end of 2021, [Mohammad Bin Salman] inaugurated a
season of diplomatic visits that had been ‘prohibited’ since the
murder of journali Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in
Ianbul, and human rights issues took a back seat to issues of
energy and the economy.
Many countries had taken a ep back in their public
relationship with [Mohammad Bin Salman], under human rights
pressure, in order to avoid tarnishing their image with a shameful
relationship [...]. With the series of diplomatic pilgrimages to
Saudi Arabia this year, the country quickly recovered from the
consequences of the ban, and its reonse to human rights
pressure shied to greater boldness to commit further violations
undeterred.”
53
The reasons for this may be many and varied, and deserve further
analysis - ranging from the delicate geopolitical context and the political and
economic power of these retentioni countries, to the low priority aorded to
the death penalty as a foreign policy issue, and/or to drug control as a human
rights concern. Nevertheless, it sent a clear message to retentioni countries:
that executions, particularly as a tool of drug control, can continue with impunity.
52. Among many others: OHCHR (22 November 2022), ‘Saudi Arabia; Resumption of executions for drug-related oences’.
Available at: hps://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/11/saudi-arabia-resumption-executions-drug-
related-oences; OHCHR (1 December 2022), ‘Saudi Arabia: UN experts call for immediate moratorium on executions
for drug oencess’. Available at: hps://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/saudi-arabia-un-experts-call-
immediate-moratorium-executions-drug-oences; European External Aion Service (27 April 2022), ‘Singapore:
Statement by the Spokeerson on the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam’. Available at: hps://www.eeas.
europa.eu/eeas/singapore-atement-okeerson-execution-nagaenthran-dharmalingam_en; Delegation of the
European Union (1 Augu 2022), ‘Joint Local Statement on forthcoming death penalty cases in Singapore’. Available
at: hps://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/singapore/joint-local-atement-forthcoming-death-penalty-cases-
singapore_en.
53. ESOHR (27 December 2022), ‘Human Rights in Saudi Arabia in 2022: A Tyrant with Immunity’ European Saudi
Organisation for Human RIghts, hps://bit.ly/3xanuZm.
35
The increase in confirmed executions was mirrored by a parallel, though
slight increase in confirmed death sentences for drug oences in high
application countries. While significant, it is crucial to keep in mind that figures
on death sentences are even more uncertain, as these tend to be even less
regularly reported and harder to confirm than executions.
The upward trend persied in Indonesia, where according to data
gathered by the NGO Reprieve, at lea 122 drug-related death sentences were
confirmed in 2022, compared to 89 in 2021 (+37%). Of these, at lea three
were imposed again foreign nationals (one from Afghanian and two from
Nigeria), and one again a woman.
CONFIRMED DEATH SENTENCES FOR DRUG
OFFENCES IN INDONESIA,
2018 20202019 2021 2022
34
54
77
89
122
36
At lea 20 death sentences for drug oences were confirmed in Malaysia
compared to 15 in 2021, and 89 in Vietnam (of which at lea five women), two
more than in 2021. In both cases, the aual figure is likely higher, due to the
lack of ocial reporting. At lea two foreign nationals were sentenced to
death for drugs in Malaysia, and at lea four in Vietnam (all Chinese), where
the younge person to be sentenced was only 20 years’ old. Media reports
on trials in Vietnamese courts reveal hiories of poverty and socioeconomic
vulnerability. For example, one article which delves into the background of
three co-defendants notes:
“The defendants said that because of poverty, when they
were promised a salary of hundreds of millions of dong, they
closed their eyes and took a risk. [...] The [fir] defendant soon
lo his father, then had four younger brothers, so he could not
get enough education. Geing married early makes the economic
pressure heavier, while farming has a precarious income. [The
second defendant explained that] both parents died early,
so the defendant was not trained and taught. Because of the
circumances, the defendant le school early, so he did not have
a able job. According to [the third defendant], because of the
large family with 9 children, life is poor. The defendant’s father was
also involved in drugs, was arreed and is currently in prison.”
54
A similar background emerges for several of the people sentenced to
death for drug tracking in Singapore in 2022. Judgements sugge that at
lea three of them have a hiory of drug use, while one adduced poverty and
needing resources to cover his wife’s medical expenses as the reason for
engaging in the drug market. The judge accepted that “[the defendant] was
working as a part-time mover with lile or no income [...], may have been worried
for his wife’s medical condition and was financially rapped”, but dismissed
the claim that the crime was commied under duress of circumances or
necessity, and sentenced the defendant to the mandatory death penalty.
55
Reports of poverty and socioeconomic vulnerabilities among people
sentenced to death confirm that those facing execution for drug oences are
oen people at the lowe level of the drug trade, who may have entered it out of
coercion or simply because of dire economic needs. Again this backdrop, the
criminal legal syem becomes one more inrument of oppression, increasing
54. Tran Vu (2 April 2022), ‘Chuyn bun sau bn án t hình 3 thanh niên mi ngoài 20 tui’ Nghe An, hps://baonghean.vn/chuyen-
buon-sau-ban-an-tu-hinh-3-thanh-nien-moi-ngoai-20-tuoi-po252046.html [automatic translation].
55. ‘Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Hamir B Laka’ [2022] SGHC 203 (2022), hps://www.elitigation.sg/gd/s/2022_
SGHC_203.
37
the risk of these people being sentenced to death; thus rearming that the
‘war on drugs’ is indeed a war on the poor.
Drug oences remain the main crimes for which individuals are on
death row in several high application countries. In Malaysia, according to
ocial figures reported in July 2022, over 67% of people on death row had been
convied of drug tracking (903 out of 1343). Information for 2022 was not
disaggregated by gender or nationality, however it is likely that - in line with
previous years - mo of the women and foreign nationals awaiting execution
were convied of drug crimes. Earlier in the year, several Nepali prisoners were
repatriated, including some on death row for drugs.
56
A comparable percentage
was reported in Indonesia, where the late available figures indicated roughly
66% of all individuals on death row had been convied of drug oences.
Additionally, according to the Indonesian Miniry of Foreign Aairs, as of
Oober 2021, 206 Indonesian nationals had been sentenced to death abroad,
with the majority being for drug crimes. Of these, 188 are in Malaysia (with the
majority of cases being drug-related). The re are in Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Lao PDR, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Singapore. Of the 39 women
awaiting execution abroad, 22 have been convied for drug crimes.
57
The figure is even higher in Singapore. Data provided by the
Transformative Juice Colleive confirm that 82% of the death row population
(52 of 63 people) is incarcerated for drug oences; including nine Malaysian
nationals, and both of the two women on death row. A new bill adopted in
late 2022 will make it harder for these individuals to file legal challenges to
execution warrants, or get their case reviewed. Pursuant to the new Po-Appeal
Applications in Capital Cases Bill, individuals awaiting capital punishment who
have exhaued all appeals can only bring po-appeal and clemency petitions
with the permission of the Court of Appeal, and only on the basis of material
that could not have been presented before.
58
Aivis in the country have
condemned the reform for violating the due process rights of people on death
row.
59
Other significant policy developments were witnessed in Indonesia and
Malaysia. Aer lengthy debates, Indonesia adopted a new Criminal Code in
56. My Republica (8 January 2022), ‘25 Nepalis on death row rescued from Malaysia’ My Republica, hps://myrepublica.
nagariknetwork.com/news/25-nepalis-on-death-row-rescued-from-malaysia/.
57. Anugrah Andriansyah (18 Oober 2021), ‘Kemlu: 206 WNI terancam hukuman mati di luar negeri’ VOA, hps://www.
voaindonesia.com/a/kemlu-206-wni-terancam-hukuman-mati-di-luar-negeri/6275323.html.
58. Parliament of Singapore, ‘Po-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases Bill’ no.34/2022. Available at: hps://www.
parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/post-appeal-applications-in-capital-cases-
bill-34-2022.pdf; Al Jazeera (30 November 2022), ‘Singapore tightens rules on la-minute death penalty appeals’ Al
Jazeera, hps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/30/singapore-tightens-rules-on-death-penalty-appeals.
59. Transformative Juice Colleive (30 November 2022), ‘The Po-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases Bill: A
brief’ Transformative Juice Colleive, hps://transformativejuicecolleive.org/2022/11/30/the-po-appeal-
applications-in-capital-cases-bill-a-brief/.
38
December 2022, which will enter into force in 2025. The harshly criticised bill
60
introduces a syem of ‘probation’ for people on death row: judges will have the
option to sentence a person to death with a ten-year probation clause, based on
(a) whether the defendant feels remorse, and (b) the role of the defendant in the
crime. If within these ten years the person shows ‘good behaviour’ - a term for
which there is no definition in the bill - the death sentence can be commuted to
life imprisonment through Presidential Decree, following consideration by the
Supreme Court. A death sentence can also be commuted to life imprisonment
through Presidential decree if a clemency reque is rejeed, but the sentence
is not carried out in the following ten years.
61
Meanwhile, the Malaysian government confirmed its intention to abolish
the mandatory death penalty;
62
a decision commended by UN human rights
experts.
63
In December 2022, the law minier indicated the reform would be
adopted in the February 2023 parliamentary session, clarifying that capital
punishment will remain in the books, but judges will be given discretion in
imposing alternative punishments.
64
The praical impa of this amendment
(if adopted) may be limited. The only available alternative to a capital conviion
may be life imprisonment - an equally diroportionate and abusive punishment.
Further, research sugges the limited judicial discretion introduced in 2017 in
the Dangerous Drugs A was seldom used by courts.
65
60. Among others, see: Adrial Akbar (5 December 2022), ‘Massa Demo Tolak RKUHP Tiba di DPR, Bawa Bendera Kuning-Tabur
Bunga’ Detik News, hps://news.detik.com/berita/d-6443559/massa-demo-tolak-rkuhp-tiba-di-dpr-bawa-bendera-
kuning-tabur-bunga; Human Rights Watch (8 December 2022), ‘Indonesia: New Criminal Code Disarous for Rights’. Available
at: hps://bit.ly/3m9Ee0y;
61. Mahinda Arkyasa (ed.) (15 December 2022), ‘Govt Explains Criminal Code’s Death Penalty to Life Sentence Conversion’
Tempo.co, hps://en.tempo.co/read/1668823/govt-explain-criminal-codes-death-penalty-to-life-sentence-conversion;
Kelly Buchanan (12 December 2022), ‘Indonesia: New Criminal Code Passed by Parliament’ Library of Congress, hps://www.
loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2022-12-11/indonesia-new-criminal-code-passed-by-parliament/.
62. Kenneth Tee (10 Oober 2022), ‘Explainer: A breakdown of the seven Bills tabled to abolish the mandatory death penalty’
Malay Mail, hps://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/10/10/explainer-a-breakdown-of-the-seven-bills-tabled-to-
abolish-the-mandatory-death-penalty/32120.
63. OHCHR (20 June 2022), ‘Malaysia: UN experts welcome announcement to abolish mandatory death penalty’. Available at:
hps://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/06/malaysia-un-experts-welcome-announcement-abolish-mandatory-
death-penalty.
64. FMT (21 December 2022), ‘Death penalty laws to be amended in February, says minier’ Free Malaysia Today, hps://www.
freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2022/12/21/death-penalty-laws-to-be-amended-in-february-says-minier/.
65. Sara Kowal, Dobby Chew and Mai Sato (19 July 2021), ‘Discretion in law but not in praice: Malaysia’s Dangerous Drugs A’
Monash University, hps://www.monash.edu/law/research/eleos/blog/eleos-juice-blog-pos/discretion-in-law-but-not-
in-praice-malaysias-dangerous-drugs-a.
39
CASE STUDY
On 6 December 2022, the House of Representatives of Indonesia
approved a new Criminal Code, which will come into ee in 2025. The
adoption marked the end of a five-decade-long process of reforming the old
Criminal Code which had been adopted by the Netherlands as colonisers of
the country. The reform process was kick-arted by the Executive, with the
creation of a team of experts to dra the new Criminal Code back in 1970. The
process was paused and then resumed several times up until 2012, when the
government submied the fir dra to Parliament.
66
Among other things ipulated in the 2012 dra was the so-called
‘probation period’ of ten years for death sentences. In short, this mechanism
allows for poponing executions by ten years present certain conditions
(including the fa that the person shows remorse, the limited role in the crime
played, and other mitigation faors) with the possibility of commuting the death
sentence to life or to 20 years of imprisonment at the end of the probation
period.
67
This provision was retained in the dra Code as it underwent several
rounds of scrutiny by Parliament.
The new Criminal Code, as a whole, remains problematic, as it contains
articles that could potentially violate human rights while weakening the
exiing law on corruption.
68
On the death penalty ecifically, it sends a
mixed message. On the one hand, it indicates that there is a rong desire
by parliamentarians to keep the death penalty in place. According to records
from a public hearing in Parliament in 2015, representatives from the three
main political parties expressed their position in favour of the death penalty,
and all of them ecifically mentioned the drug war as a key reason for their
66. Aryo Putranto Saptohutomo (ed.) (6 December 2022), ‘Kilas Perjalanan RKUHP, Penantian Puluhan Tahun hingga Disahkan
Jadi UU’ Kompas.com, hps://nasional.kompas.com/read/2022/12/06/12251921/kilas-perjalanan-rkuhp-penantian-
puluhan-tahun-hingga-disahkan-jadi-uu.
67. Full text of the Code available at: hps://www.hukumonline.com/pusatdata/detail/17797/rancangan-undang-
undang-2022/document/lt537f026be5cd3.
68. Tirto (7 December 2022), ‘10 Pasal Bermasalah RKUHP, Kontrasepsi hingga Korupsi’ Tirto.id, hps://tirto.id/10-pasal-
bermasalah-rkuhp-kontrasepsi-hingga-korupsi-gzwP.
REFORMING THE DEATH
PENALTY IN INDONESIA’S
NEW CRIMINAL CODE
40
support.
69
On the other hand, there now seems to be a beer underanding
of the many, recurring fair trial issues in capital cases, and the risk of sending
innocent people to death. Two members of Parliament, Arsul Sani and Taufik
Basari, defended the probationary death sentence by reiterating the irit of
moving away from the death penalty as a core punishment to an alternative,
probationary one.
70
Sani ated at one of the meetings that “it is time to dismiss,
or op using, the death penalty.”
71
This might signal a higher sensitivity to the
issue, and shows the critical role members of Parliament can play on wedge
issues, even if in a minority position.
There was and continues to be hope for ronger support for abolition
in Indonesia, both in Parliament and by the Executive. The probationary death
sentence represents an aempt to reach a compromise with civil society’s
call for abolition. Albeit minor, the probationary death sentence could play an
important role in shielding death row prisoners from execution and promoting
commutations.
69. Transcripts available at: hps://reformasikuhp.org/rdpu-r-kuhp-pada-8-september-2015/.
70. Transcripts available at: hps://reformasikuhp.org/data/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Rapat-Kerja-Komisi-III-DPR-
dengan-Menkuham_Poin-Poin.pdf. See sldo: Sabrina Asril (ed.) (12 December 2022), ‘Hotman Paris Pertanyakan
Hukuman Mati dalam KUHP Baru, Ini Reons Anggota DPR’ Kompas.com, hps://nasional.kompas.com/
read/2022/12/12/23460621/hotman-paris-pertanyakan-hukuman-mati-dalam-kuhp-baru-ini-reons-anggota.
71. Komisi III (25 May 2022), ‘Pidana Mati Tidak Boleh Dijatuhkan Sembarangan’ Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik
Indonesia, hps://www.dpr.go.id/berita/detail/id/38992/t/Pidana+Mati+Tidak+Boleh+Dijatuhkan+Sembarangan.
40
People on death
row for drugs
(%age of total)
People on death
row for drugs
(%age of total)
Death sentences
for drugs
(%age of total)
Death sentences
for drugs
(%age of total)
Country 2022 2021 2022 2021
Bahrain 4 (15%) 3 (11%) 1+ (50%) 0 (-)
Bangladesh 17+ (0.6%) 3+ (0.1%) 10+ (1.7%) 3+ (0.9%)
Egypt unknown (-) 11+ (4%) 0 (-) 11+ (3%)
Iraq 10+ (0.1%) 6+ (0.6%) 3+ (10%) 2+ (2%)
Kuwait 8 (16%) 3+ (6%) 5+ (45%) 1+ (20%)
Lao PDR 300+ (unknown) 300+ (unknown) 39 (unknown) 14+ (unknown)
Pakian unknown unknown 0 (-) 2 (1.5%)
Sri Lanka 60+ (6%) 60+ (6%) 0 (-) 2 (6%)
State of Paleine (Gaza) 2+ (1%) 6+ (2.7%) 1+ (8%) 1 (5%)
Thailand 121 (62%) 115 (63.5%) unknown (-) 2+ (20%)
United Arab Emirates 7+ (3.5%) 5+ (2.5%) 3+ (37.5%) 1+ (11%)
LOW APPLICATION
STATES
42
Countries are classified as low application if no executions for drug
oences were carried out in the pa five years, but death sentences for that
category of crimes continued to be imposed. Deite low application countries
receiving less media and political aention than high application ones,
national developments in this cluer of countries have a unique potential to
sway debates and trends on the death penalty for drug oences. Indeed, high
application countries tend to be more resiant to change and more aunchly
defensive of capital punishment, while in symbolic application countries the
marginal use of the death penalty for drug oences makes it unlikely for it to
become a priority issue, or subje of targeted intervention. In contra, several
praical developments and policy reforms took place or were announced in
low application countries, both positive and negative, which may significantly
impa the imposition of capital punishment in the near future, as well as the
global trend.
With regards to trends, a significant increase in confirmed death
sentences for drug oences was recorded in this category between 2021
and 2022 - from 39 to 62. This 59% increase is noteworthy, though it mu
be situated in a context of opacity and lack of ocial information on capital
punishment, meaning all figures are to be considered as minimum, partial, and
only indicative. This is probably be exemplified by the country driving this
trend - Lao PDR - where a significant jump in drug-related death sentences
was recorded (+178% from 2021, +200% from 2020). This may be linked to the
intensification of punitive approaches to drug control in the country, since the
declaration of the ‘drug problem’ as a ‘National Agenda’ in mid-2021.
72
However,
it is also likely due to the fa that this is the fir time in five years that data on
drug-related death sentences were provided by an ocial source.
73
As more
and more information emerges on the frequent imposition of death sentences
for drug oences in the country, Lao PDR may soon be reclassified as high
application.
72. Phayboune Thanabouasy (17 May 2021), ‘Lao Government Declares Drug Problem a National Agenda’ The Laotian Times,
hps://laotiantimes.com/2021/05/17/lao-government-declares-drug-problem-a-national-agenda/.
73. Pasaxon (26 December 2022), ‘ 6.851 ’Pasaxon, hps://www.pasaxon.org.la/pasaxon-detail.php?p_id=81924&a=politic-
detail.
39 14 132022 2021 2020
CONFIRMED DEATH SENTENCES IN LAO PDR
43
A weighty increase in confirmed death sentences for drug oences was
also noted in other countries, such as Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the death
penalty was imposed for drug tracking again at lea six people (likely more)
- five men and one woman. Two of these are of Rohingya ethnicity, including
reportedly the fir Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazaar (home to thousands
of refugees) to be sentenced to death.
74
Media sources covering the case
denounced the raci charaer of the judgement, which ated:
“Deite being sheltered in Bangladesh, the Rohingya
Yabarkabari is trying to deroy the country by smuggling
drugs [...]. Without capital punishment, the State would have to
unnecessarily keep him in jail for 30 years out of public funds, and
for the same reason, will lose money in his life imprisonment [...].
On the contrary, his death sentence would result in the permanent
removal of a notorious drug dealer from society and the ate,
while also seing an example.”
75
Raci remarks in capital drug cases, and in drug law enforcement more
generally, are not unusual. In 2003, Humphrey Jeerson, a Nigerian national,
was sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug tracking. One of the reasons for
the court to impose death as punishment was that “black people from Nigeria
are oen the target of police surveillance for drug tracking” in the country.
76
Mr Jeerson was executed in 2016. Concerns over the raci nature of drug
control have increasingly been raised not only by civil society and community
organisations, but also by UN bodies. This includes the UN Working Group of
Experts on People of African Descent, which in 2019 concluded that “the war
on drugs has operated more eeively as a syem of racial control than as a
mechanism for combating the use and tracking of narcotics”; and that drug
policy is being employed “to juify excessive surveillance, criminalisation and
the targeting of people of African descent worldwide.”
77
In this context, racially-
charged death sentences are among the mo extreme manifeations of raci
drug control.
Furthermore, in Bangladesh, media sources report that four people were
sentenced to death in November 2022, 11 years aer fir being arreed for
tracking Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup banned in the country.
78
74. The Business Standard (9 June 2022), ‘Rohingya man sentenced to death in drugs case’ The Business Standard, hps://www.
tbsnews.net/bangladesh/court/rohingya-man-sentenced-death-drugs-case-436702.
75. Samaya Anjum (30 June 2022), ‘Rohingya Man Sentenced to Death in Bangladesh’ The Diplomat, hps://thediplomat.
com/2022/06/rohingya-man-sentenced-to-death-in-bangladesh/.
76. LBHM (27 July 2016), ‘Rilis Pers - Eksekusi Humphrey Jeerson Tidak Sah’. Available at: hps://lbhmasyarakat.org/rilis-pers-
eksekusi-humprey-jeerson-tidak-sah/.
77. UN News (14 March 2019), ‘Drug laws mu be amended to ‘combat racial discrimination’, UN experts say’ UN News, hps://
news.un.org/en/ory/2019/03/103472.
78. The Financial Express (25 November 2022), ‘Court sentences four to death for drug tracking’ The Financial Express, hps://
thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/crime/court-sentences-four-to-death-for-drug-tracking-1668334157.
44
As an increase in the smuggling of this produ is reported between India and
Bangladesh, more death sentences for its tracking are likely to be imposed in
the near future.
79
A rise in confirmed death sentences was also noted in some Gulf
countries, such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the former,
at lea five people received a capital sentence for (intent of) tracking -
compared to one death sentence confirmed in 2021. All those sentenced are
foreign nationals, from Iran and India. As the country resumed executions in
2022 aer a four-year hiatus, their fate and the fate of the other individuals on
death row remains uncertain. In the UAE, three foreign nationals received death
sentences for drug tracking: two men from the Philippines, and one woman
from Israel, whose sentence araed significant media aention. The woman
maintained her innocence and claimed her confession was coerced. She
eventually received diplomatic assiance and her sentence was ‘commuted’,
or ‘reversed’, reportedly to life imprisonment.
80
Notably, it is likely the number
of confirmed death sentences in the Emirates is an undereimation of all those
imposed: while only ten drug-related death sentences between 2016 and 2021
could be confirmed, other sources reported 31 in the same period.
81
A similar undereimation is to be assumed for Iraq, where the judiciary
reported three drug-related death sentences throughout 2022, compared to
the two confirmed for 2021. However, other judicial sources reportedly indicated
that ten drug cases resulted in a sentence of death between September 2021
and December 2022,
82
meaning five death sentences were never ocially
reported.
79. India News (12 Augu 2022), ‘Aer cale, smuggling of phensedyl and yaba tablet ikes in eaern ates’ The Hinduan
Times, hps://www.hinduantimes.com/india-news/aer-cale-smuggling-of-phensedyl-and-yaba-tablets-ikes-in-eas
-
tern-ates-101660321139046.html; Shiv Sahay Singh (16 February 2022), ‘Phensedyl smuggling remains a challenge on the
India-Bangladesh border’ The Hindu, hps://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kolkata/phensedyl-smuggling-remains-a-cha
-
llenge-on-the-india-bangladesh-border/article65052971.ece.
80. Jack Khoury (7 July 2022), ‘Israeli Gets Life in UAE Prison Aer Death Sentence Overturned’ Haaretz, hps://bit.ly/3I7dg0l.
81. Jocelyn Huon, Carolyn Hoyle and Lucy Harry (25 November 2022), ‘Qatar’s death row and the invisible migrant workforce
deemed unworthy of due process’ The Conversation, hps://theconversation.com/qatars-death-row-and-the-invisible-mi
-
grant-workforce-deemed-unworthy-of-due-process-191017#:~:text=Qatar%20retains%20the%20death%20penal-
ty,at%20Central%20Prison%2C%20in%20Doha.
82. Muaqila (29 December 2022), ‘بببببب بب ببببببب ببببببب.. 10 ببببب ببببب ببب بببب بببببب’ Muaqila, hps://bit.ly/3YjM2uL.
45
Death row figures appear to have remained moly able between
2021 and 2022, although the same lack of tranarency mentioned above
applies to these data. Notably, the only low application country for which ocial,
disaggregated, and updated figures are provided is Thailand. In all other cases,
total figures are based on news and/or civil society reports, and year-by-year
eimations.
Drug oences appear to be the main crime for which people are on death
row in two countries - Lao PDR, and Thailand. In the laer, 62% of all people on
death row, and 78% of all women on death row, are awaiting execution for drug
oences. Aer a eady decrease in the death row population in the country
between 2018 and 2021 (both in total and for drug oences ecifically), figures
remained roughly unchanged between 2021 and 2022.
The number of people on death row for drugs may also be on the rise
in the State of Paleine, where one death sentence for drug possession
and selling was announced in Oober potentially bringing the total number
of prisoners awaiting execution for drugs to seven. The judgement cited
deterrence as a key juification for the imposition of capital punishment, ating
that “the ruling aims to achieve general deterrence again drug dealers and
MINIMUM CONFIRMED DEATH SENTENCES
IN LOW APPLICATION COUNTRIES —
UAE
Thailand
State Paleine
Sri Lanka
Pakian
Lao PDR
Kuwait
Iraq
Egypt
Bangladesh
Bahrain
39
62
2021 2022
46
preserve the Paleinian fabric.”
83
Deite being frequently used as a rationale
for imposing the death penalty, there is no evidence that capital punishment
deters drug-related or other crimes more than any other form of punishment.
84
Similarly, in Bahrain, at lea one person was sentenced to death for drug
tracking in 2022, accused of smuggling 50 kgs of hashish from Iran. Adding
to earlier sentences, there are likely at lea four people on death row for drug
oences in the Kingdom, of which three are at imminent risk of execution.
The use of capital punishment in the country araed significant aention
throughout the year: Pope Francis oke again the death penalty in its ocial
visit in November,
85
and a new report by the NGOs Bahrain Initute for Rights
and Democracy (BIRD) and Human Rights Watch shed further light on the
torture and other human rights abuses charaerising capital trials.
86
While no drug-related death sentences could be confirmed in Egypt,
pa praice indicates that it is not unlikely that some of the over 500 death
sentences reported by civil society in 2022 were for drug crimes. As further
indication that capital punishment is ill imposed for drug oences in the
country, the commutation of the death sentence of seven Pakiani nationals
for drug tracking to life imprisonment was announced in June 2022.
87
Other low application countries experienced significant policy
developments in 2022 potentially aeing the imposition of the death penalty
for drug oences, with two antithetical examples witnessed in South Asia. In
Pakian, where no drug-related death sentences were confirmed and retention
of capital punishment for drug control is moly symbolic, several aempts were
made to remove death as a punishment for drug possession and tracking, as
detailed in the following case udy.
83. Ultra Paleine (10 Oober 2022), ‘
’
Ultra Paleine, hps://bit.ly/3lo9ecQ.
84. Among others, see: Human Rights Council, ‘Capital punishment and the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing
proteion of the rights of those facing the death penalty. Yearly supplement of the Secretary-General to his quinquennial
report on capital punishment’, UN Doc. A/HRC/42/28 (28 Augu 2019).
85. Philip Pullella and Ghaida Ghantous (3 November 2022), ‘In Bahrain, pope eaks out again death penalty and discri
-
mination’ Reuters, hps://www.reuters.com/world/bahrain-popes-message-may-get-caught-shiite-sunni-muslim-di-
vide-2022-11-03/.
86. Human Rights Watch and BIRD (2022), ‘“The Court is Satisfied with the Confession”: Bahrain Death Sentences Follow Tor
-
ture, Sham Trials’ (New York: Human Rights Watch), hps://www.hrw.org/report/2022/10/10/court-satisfied-confession/
bahrain-death-sentences-follow-torture-sham-trials.
87. Hands O Cain (14 June 2022): ‘Egypt: 7 Pakianis sentenced to death commuted to life imprisonment’ Hands O
Cain, hp://www.handsocain.info/notizia/egypt-7-pakianis-sentenced-to-death-commuted-to-life-imprison
-
ment-60353541.
47
CASE STUDY
As reconrued by the leading NGO Juice Proje Pakian,
88
a fir
legislative proposal to remove death as a punishment for drug oences had
been tabled in Oober 2021 by the then-law minier. This was followed by a
new proposal in January 2022 - then abandoned because of a sudden change in
government - and then tabled again in Augu 2022. In December 2022, news
emerged that the late proposal had been adopted by the National Assembly
(the lower house of the Parliament). The Bill, which essentially replaces the death
penalty with life imprisonment for drug tracking, juifies the amendment with
the fa that
“The death penalty is used in a diroportionate manner under
the CNSA [Control of Narcotic Subances A, 1997] that violates
the fundamental right to life which happens to be the mo basic of
all human rights. The risk of executing innocent people in narcotics
cases exis and the arbitrary application of the death penalty can
never be ruled out under the said law.”
89
If approved by the Senate and the President, the Bill will eeively enter
into force, leading to the fir abolition of the death penalty for drug oences
in a retentioni country in at lea 15 years. While its praical ees are
undetermined (it is unclear whether anyone has a final capital conviion for a
drug crime in the country), its symbolic significance and its potential influence
both on Pakian’s international anding, and on the use of the death penalty
for drug oences in the region and beyond, should not be undereimated.
88. Juice Proje Pakian (2022), ‘Death Penalty in Pakian: Data Mapping Capital Punishment’ (Pakian: Juice Proje
Pakian).
89. Full text available at: hps://na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/62f3d2dce5d9b_762.pdf (la accessed 9 February 2023).
TOWARDS ABOLITION
OF THE DEATH PENALTY
FOR DRUGS IN PAKISTAN
48
Diametrically dierent reforms were adopted in Sri Lanka, where the
government continued intensifying its violent ‘war on drugs’, in pursuit of an
abusive while ineeive rategy centred around militarisation, repression,
and discrimination. A key junure was the adoption of the Poisons, Opium
and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) A No. 41 of 2022, which added
methamphetamine as a subance the possession, import/export, or tracking
over five grams of which can be punished with death
90
(a similar law had
been passed in 2018 in Bangladesh, another South Asian country pursuing
a violent ‘war on drugs’).
91
The Bill also clarified that if a death-eligible drug
oence is commied by a person under the age of 18, the punishment will
be imprisonment for a maximum of ten years and compulsory rehabilitation
followed by probation.
92
While legislators expand the applicability of capital
punishment in violation of international andards, the current unocial
moratorium seems to remain in place: in late Augu 2022, Sri Lanka’s President
Ranil Wickremesinghe informed the Aorney General that he does not intend
to sign execution warrants.
93
This represents a positive signal for the hundreds
of people on death row in the country, of which at lea 60 (but likely many more)
are there for drug oences; however, it is a purely political decision which may
change at any time, absent formal commitments through legislative reform.
Another landmark drug policy reform was adopted in Thailand, which
eeively legalised the possession and cultivation of cannabis in mid-2022,
becoming the fir country in Asia to do so.
94
Though not direly impaing
the use of capital punishment, such a decision is encouraging much needed
debate on the merits of extremely punitive approaches to drugs, including the
retention of the death penalty, both within and beyond domeic borders.
95
UN bodies and mechanisms addressed the use of capital punishment
by several countries in this category throughout 2022. Iraq’s compliance with
its international human rights obligations was reviewed by both the Human
Rights Commiee and the Commiee Again Torture (CAT). The former
recommended that, absent abolition, the death penalty be only imposed for the
mo serious crimes (thus excluding drug oences) and never be mandatory.
90. Parliament of the Democratic Sociali Republic of Sri Lanka, ‘Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) A’,
Bill No. 149 (Published in the Gazee on 23 Augu 2022), hps://www.parliament.lk/uploads/bills/gbills/english/6277.
pdf.
91. See: Giada Girelli (2019), ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Oences: Global Overview 2018’ (London: Harm Reduion
International), hps://hri.global/flagship-research/death-penalty/the-death-penalty-for-drug-oences-global-over
-
view-2018/.
92. Parliament of the Democratic Sociali Republic of Sri Lanka, ‘Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) A’.
93. Colombo Page (1 September 2022), ‘President informs the Supreme Court that he will not sign the death sentences’
Colombo Page, hp://www.handsocain.info/notizia/sri-lanka-president-informs-the-supreme-court-that-he-will-not-
sign-the-death-sentences-60358046.
94. Tassanee Vejpongsa and Grant Peck (10 June 2022), ‘Thailand makes marijuana legal, but smoking discouraged’ AP News,
hps://apnews.com/article/politics-health-business-thailand-marijuana-a9b9eed0de06f0b006f886a4a9d69198.
95. As an example, see: BBC News (21 June 2022), ‘Thailand cannabis: From a war on drugs to weed curries’ BBC News,
hps://www.bbc.com/news/61836019; Gloria Lai (18 July 2022), ‘Thailand breaks away from Southea Asia’s brutally
punitive drug policies’ New Mandala, hps://www.newmandala.org/thailand-breaks-away-from-southea-asias-bruta
-
lly-punitive-drug-policies/.
49
The laer noted the lack of comprehensive data regarding the measure, and
expressed concern for deplorable detention conditions of people on death
row; before recommending that the country eablish a moratorium, commute
death sentences, and review domeic legislation.
96
During the dialogue, Iraq
alleged that death is only imposed as a sentence for “certain crimes deemed
particularly serious” and not for less grave oences - but this is contradied by
its retention of capital punishment for drug crimes.
CAT also reviewed the performance of Paleine and the UAE. In both
cases, it expressed similar concerns about the imposition of the death penalty
for “less serious oences” (in the case of Paleine) and for the length of
detention on death row (in the UAE). Accordingly, it recommended that the two
ates intensify eorts to abolish the death penalty, including by eablishing a
moratorium.
97
For its part, at the 49
th
Human Rights Council in early 2022, Thailand
communicated its views on the recommendations received at the third round of
Universal Periodic Review, held in November 2021. Encouragingly, the country
accepted some recommendations related to the death penalty, particularly
those promoting national debate and engagement with civil society, such as to:
“take necessary eps towards the full abolition of the death penalty”, “condu
awareness-raising campaigns with the aim of educating the public on human
rights and alternatives to the death penalty”, and “consider ratifying the Second
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.
98
Finally, during her ocial visit to Bangladesh in Augu 2022, then-UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet encouraged the
country to reduce the scope of the application of capital punishment and work
towards a moratorium.
99
96. Commiee Again Torture, ‘Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Iraq’ UN Doc. CAT/C/IRQ/CO/2
(15 June 2022), para. 30-31.
97. Commiee Again Torture, ‘Concluding observations on the initial report of the State of Paleine’ UN Doc. CAT/C/PSE/
CO/1 (23 Augu 2022), para. 48-49; Commiee Again Torture, ‘Concludng observations on the initial report of the
United Arab Emirates’ UN Doc. CAT/C/ARE/CO/1 (22 Augu 2022), para. 37-38.
98. Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Thailand. Addendum: Views on
conclusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review’, UN Doc.
A/HRC/49/17/Add.1 (17 February 2022).
99. OHCHR (17 Augu 2022), ‘UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet concludes her ocial visit to
Bangladesh). Available at: hps://www.ohchr.org/en/atements/2022/08/un-high-commissioner-human-rights-mi
-
chelle-bachelet-concludes-her-ocial-visit.
SYMBOLIC
APPLICATION COUNTRIES
51
Twelve countries are currently classified as symbolic application, as their
legislation allows for death to be imposed as a penalty for certain drug-related
oences, but they do not appear to have carried out executions nor sentenced
individuals to death for these oences in the pa five years. As no one has
been executed in Brunei Darussalam in 65 years, and the la confirmed
death sentence for drug oences dates back to 2017, the country has been
reclassified from ‘low’ to ‘symbolic’ application.
No one is confirmed to be on death row for drug oences in these
countries, though this cannot be categorically excluded, due to wideread
opacity and lack of ocial figures. For example, the atus of the late
individual sentenced to death for drug tracking in Brunei remains unclear,
and drug-related death sentences may have been passed by the Martial Court
in Myanmar which have not been reported by media, civil society, or ocial
sources.
In July 2022, Myanmar made international headlines - and araed
universal condemnation
100
- for resuming executions aer 34 years, hanging
four political prisoners.
101
This setback raises concerns for the safety of the
over 100 people sentenced to death since the military takeover in early 2021,
102
and it may signal a more mainream use of capital punishment in the country;
although currently its imposition appears to be moly targeted again political
opponents. Meanwhile, 2022 was dubbed by experts in the USA as “the year of
botched executions”, aer a ring of failed or cruelly adminiered protocols.
103
These, coupled with lethal injeion drugs-supply issues,
104
are further dielling
the alleged humanity of drug-induced executions, and forcing debates on
execution methods in the country. Once again, former President Donald Trump
called for the execution of “drug dealers”, reading misinformation on the
ate of the drug market in the USA as well as on the eeiveness of the death
penalty for drugs in retentioni countries.
105
100. Among others, see: UN News (25 July 2022), ‘Myanmar junta’s execution of four democracy aivis condemned by UN’
UN News, hps://news.un.org/en/ory/2022/07/1123172; ASEAN (27 July 2022), ‘ASEAN Chairman’s Statement on the
Execution of Four Opposition Aivis in Myanmar’. Available at: hps://asean.org/asean-chairmans-atement-on-the-
execution-of-four-opposition-aivis-in-myanmar/.
101. NPR (25 July 2022), ‘Myanmar carries out its fir executions in decades, including democracy aivis’ NPR, hps://
www.npr.org/2022/07/25/1113369138/in-its-fir-executions-in-nearly-50-years-myanmar-executes-4-democracy-
aivi.
102. OHCHR (2 December 2022), ‘Myanmar: UN Human Rights Chief alarmed at death sentences by secretive military courts’.
Available at: hps://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/myanmar-un-human-rights-chief-alarmed-death-sen
-
tences-secretive-military.
103. DPIC (2022), ‘The Death Penalty in 2022: Year End Report’ (US: Death Penalty Information Centre), hps://reports.dea
-
thpenaltyinfo.org/year-end/Year-End-Report-2022.pdf.
104. Patricia Mcknight (13 May 2022), ‘Problem With Lethal Injeion Drugs Prompts Ohio Gov to Popone Execution’
Newsweek, hps://www.newsweek.com/problem-lethal-injeion-drugs-prompts-ohio-gov-popone-execu
-
tion-1706630.
105. Glenn Kessler (14 November 2022), ‘The debunked claims and faux ‘fas’ supporting Trump’s plan to execute drug dea
-
lers’ The Washington Po, hps://www.washingtonpo.com/politics/2022/11/14/debunked-claims-faux-fas-suppor-
ting-trumps-plan-execute-drug-dealers/.
52
Another symbolic application ate whose human rights record araed
significant aention in 2022 was Qatar, due to its hoing of the 2022 World
Cup. Experts denounced the abysmal treatment of migrant workers in the
country, including their diroportionate vulnerability to the death penalty.
While no drug-related death sentences emerged in 2022, sources reported
one previously unconfirmed capital conviion for drug tracking between
2016 and 2021.
106
While no one appears to have been sentenced to death for drugs in
Jordan, at lea three Jordanians were executed for drug crimes in Saudi
Arabia, and at lea one more is considered at imminent risk of execution.
107
According to ESOHR, Hussein Abo Al-Kheir was sentenced to death for drug
smuggling in 2015 aer being held incommunicado and brutally tortured by
law enforcement. He has remained on death row since.
108
Back in 2015, in a
leer to the government of Saudi Arabia, several UN experts argued that the
circumances of his case would render his execution an extrajudicial killing. In
April 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention
arbitrary,
109
and later in the year both UN experts
110
and the UK Minier of State
for the Middle Ea, South Asia and the United Nations
111
called for Mr Al-Kheir’s
urgent release.
The eeiveness of the death penalty as a drug control tool was
assessed by legislators in Taiwan (where the la confirmed death sentence
for drug tracking dates back to 2010), through a dedicated opinion survey
commissioned by the Death Penalty Proje and the Taiwan Alliance to End
the Death Penalty. While policymakers defended the deterrent ee of capital
punishment in general, when asked about the mo likely measures to reduce
drug oences, they cited interventions such as education, “eorts to reduce
poverty and improve housing”, and beer treatment, before death sentences
and executions.
112
Policymakers also had an opportunity to reconsider retaining the death
penalty in Cuba, where a new Penal Code was adopted that entered into force in
December 2022. Although no one has been executed in 19 years, and no one is
on death row, legislators in the country decided to maintain death as a possible
106. Huon, Hoyle and Harry (25 November 2022), ‘Qatar’s death row and the invisible migrant workforce deemed unworthy of
due process’.
107. OHCHR (22 November 2022), ‘Saudi Arabia: Resumption of executions for drug-related oences’.
108. ESOHR (2 December 2022), ‘A Team of United Nations Specialis Confirms That Abu Al-Khair’s Arre is Arbitrary and
Calls on Saudi Arabia To Stop All Drug Executions’ European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, hps://bit.ly/40G
-
DdN8.
109. Human Rights Council, ‘Opinion adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its ninety-third session, 30 March
to 8 April 2022. Opinion No. 36/2022 concerning Hussein Abo al-Kheir (Saudi Arabia)’ UN Doc. A/HRC/WGAD/2022/36
(20 Oober 2022), hps://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/detention-wg/opinions/ses
-
sion93/2022-11-21/A-HRC-WGAD-2022-36-SaudiArabia-AEV.pdf.
110. OHCHR (1 December 2022), ‘Saudi Arabia: UN experts call for immediate moratorium on executions for drug oences’.
111. Dania Akkad (24 November 2022), ‘UK minier called Saudi ambassador over Jordanian facing execution’ Middle Ea
Eye, hps://www.middleeaeye.net/news/uk-minier-raises-concerns-over-saudi-execution-ate.
112. Carolyn Hoyle and Shiow-duan Hawang (2021), ‘Legislators’ Opinions on the Death Penalty in Taiwan’ (London: The
Death Penalty Proje), hps://deathpenaltyproje.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DPP-Taiwan-Legislators-opi
-
nions-Web-resolution.pdf.
53
sentence for over 20 oences in the new Code, including drug-related ones;
thus missing a critical chance to join the international trend towards abolition.
Deite contravening international andards that prohibit retentioni countries
from expanding the scope and applicability of the death penalty, the new Code
expands the applicability of capital punishment for drug-related crimes to new
circumances, meaning when the crime is commied:
Using minors under the age of 18 (rather than 16);
In (the vicinity of) educational or orts initutions, correional
initutions or other places of detention, care centres or other
places where children, adolescents and young people go for
educational, orts and social aivities;
In conneion with an organised group or transnational
organised crime;
With ‘relatively high’ quantities of drugs, or subances with
similar ees; or
By a person who at the time of the a has a criminal record for a
similar oence.
113
Earlier in the year, Cuba had been reviewed by the UN Commiee Again
Torture, which had recommended the declaration of a formal moratorium with a
view to abolition.
114
In addition to Cuba, three other symbolic application ates had their
use of capital punishment reviewed by UN human rights mechanisms or
processes in 2022. The UN Human Rights Commiee, in its fir Concluding
Observations on Qatar, expressed concern for the retention of the death penalty
“for oences that do not meet the threshold of the ‘mo serious crimes’” (such
as drug oences), and recommended that the country takes “all measures
necessary to ensure that it is imposed only for the mo serious crimes, involving
intentional killing.”
115
South Sudan and Sudan, both retentioni countries that
routinely carry out executions and sentence people to death (though seemingly
not for drug crimes) underwent the third cycle of Universal Periodic Review at
the UN Human Rights Council in early 2022. Both countries received several
recommendations on capital punishment, ranging from urging abolition and
113. Gaceta Oficial de la Republica de Cuba, Ley 151/2022 ‘Codigo Penal’ (GOC-2022-861-O93, published on 1 September
2022, art. 253(2). Available at: hps://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/cub212824.pdf [translated].
114. Commiee Again Torture, ‘Concluding Observations on the third period report of Cuba’ UN Doc. CAT/C/CUB/CO/3,
para.38-39.
115. Commiee Again Torture, ‘Concluding Observations on the initial report of Qatar’, UN Doc. CCPR/C/QAT/CO/1, para.
20-21.
54
imposing a moratorium to rengthening awareness-raising campaigns; none
was accepted.
116
No notable developments were recorded in the remaining countries in
this category: no sentences, executions, or individuals on death row for drug
oences were reported in India, Mauritania, Oman, nor South Korea - where
the Conitutional Court began reviewing the legality of capital punishment.
117
116. Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: South Sudan’, UN Doc. A/
HRC/50/14 (28 March 2022) combined with Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the Working Group on the Universal Pe
-
riodic Review: South Sudan. Addendum: Views on conclusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and
replies presented by the State under review’, UN Doc. A/HRC/50/14/Add.1 (1 June 2022); Human Rights Council, ‘Report
of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Sudan’, UN Doc. A/HRC/50/16 (20 April 2022) combined with
Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Sudan. Addendum: Views on con
-
clusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review’, UN Doc. A/
HRC/50/16/Add.1 (20 April 2022).
117. Shim Woo-hyun (14 July 2022), ‘Conitutional court begins third review of death penalty’ The Korea Herald, hps://
www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220714000706.
INSUFFICIENT
DATA
56
This category groups countries where the late available information
indicates that the death penalty mo likely remains a possible punishment
for certain drug oences, but where, due to confli and unre, it is simply
impossible to discern trends, provide realiic figures, and/or even conclude
whether reported death sentences or executions were carried out in application
of criminal laws and pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent
court.
No drug-related death sentences or executions were reported in Libya,
and the fate of the four Syrian nationals reportedly sentenced to death for drug
tracking in 2019 (two of which were in absentia) remains unknown. While no
executions for drug oences were reportedly carried out in Syria, at lea four
Syrian nationals were executed for drug oences in Saudi Arabia between
November and December 2022.
In Yemen, news outlets reported the imposition of one death sentence for
drug use and tracking of amphetamines and cannabis resin in June 2022.
118
This is the fir drug-related death sentence noted by a reputable source in 11
years, and it confirms that drug oences remain punishable by death in the
country. Meanwhile, at lea two Yemeni nationals were executed for drug
oences in Saudi Arabia in late 2022, meeting the rong condemnation of
the Yemeni Miniry for Human Rights, who framed the Kingdom’s denial of
information to the families of the viims as “a crime under international and
humanitarian conventions, covenants and laws.”
119
The Miniry also denounced
the silence of the UN Security Council on the executions and called on the UN
to take urgent aion.
120
118. Al Jadeed Press (27 June 2022),‘’ Al Jadeed
Press, hps://bit.ly/3jM3rxg.
119. Althawra (2 January 2023), ), ‘Althawra, hps://althawrah.ye/archi
-
ves/784293 [automatic translation].
120. Ibid.
*CORRECTION NOTICE
An earlier version of The Death Penalty for Drug Oences: Global Overview 2022
incorrely lied four executions in India, inead of in Bangladesh. There were no death sentences
given for drug oences in India. Therefore, we moved India back to Symbolic Application category,
and have adjued the data across the report to refle the revision.
58
THE DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG OFFENCES:
GLOBAL OVERVIEW 2022
