Global Report: Hundreds of people are executed for drug offences each year around the world, according to a new global survey published by the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA). According to the report, the actual annual figure very likely exceeds one thousand when taking into account those countries that keep their death penalty statistics secret.
The first global survey of its kind, the report reveals that 32 nations currently have capital punishment laws in force for drug offences. In many instances, foreign nationals make up the majority of those executed.
The report highlights the opinion of numerous UN bodies that the death penalty for drug offences is a violation of international human rights law. IHRA argues that the death penalty for drugs contributes to a climate of fear in those countries, which may prevent people who use drugs from accessing HIV prevention and drug treatment services.
Monday, May 17, 2010 (Vienna, Austria)–A comprehensive study released today by the International Harm Reduction Association finds that hundreds of people are executed for drug offences each year around the world, a figure that very likely exceeds one thousand when taking into account those countries that keep their death penalty statistics secret. In many instances, foreign nationals make up the majority of those executed or on death row.
The report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010 (1) was released today on the opening day of the 19th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, taking place in Vienna this week.
The report is the first detailed country by country overview of the death penalty for drugs, monitoring both national legislation and state practice of enforcement. Of the states worldwide that retain the death penalty, 32 jurisdictions maintain laws that prescribe the death penalty for drug offences. In some states, drug offenders make up a significant portion – if not the outright majority – of those executed each year.
Despite the large number of jurisdictions with the death penalty for drugs in law, relatively few carry out executions with regularity, or in large numbers.China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam are widely known to execute high numbers of drug offenders each year. Historically, Malaysia and Singapore have also put many people to death for drug-related crimes. In many cases, those executed are foreigners.
“Of course the issue is not just about foreigners being sentenced to death, but this highlights the need for international attention to this issue,” said Rick Lines, Deputy Director of IHRA and co-author of the report. “Those governments that think this issue doesn’t concern them need to think again, and work to end the practice.”
“It is sadly ironic that some countries with the worst record on the use of the death penalty for drugs at the same time recognise the need to address drug related harms as a health concern, and to act to prevent HIV/AIDS among drug using populations,” said Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of IHRA. “They are scaling up needle and syringe exchange and opioid substitution therapy, as our Global State of Harm Reduction 2010 report shows. (2) But harm reduction programmes can never be fully delivered in a climate of repression and fear. The two positions are incompatible.”
While many governments that retain the death penalty argue that drug offences fall under the umbrella of ‘most serious crimes’ enshrined in international law (3) this is not the perspective of the UN Human Rights Committee nor the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, both of which have stated that drug offences do not constitute ‘most serious crimes’ and that executions for such offences are therefore in violation of international human rights law.
“Countries with the death penalty for drug offences are not only violating human rights law, they are clinging to a criminal justice model that is ineffective and unnecessary, said Lines. “IHRA is calling on an immediate moratorium on all executions for drug offences, a commuting of all existing death sentences for drug offences and an amendment of legislation to remove the death penalty for all drug offences,” concluded Lines
