International Courant
In its annual report, Hurt Discount Worldwide says a minimum of 467 drug-related executions occurred final 12 months.
At the least 467 individuals had been executed for drug offenses in 2023, a brand new document in line with Hurt Discount Worldwide (HRI), an NGO that has been monitoring the usage of the loss of life penalty for medicine since 2007.
“Regardless of not considering the handfuls, if not tons of, of executions which are mentioned to have taken place in China, Vietnam and North Korea, the 467 executions that occurred in 2023 characterize a 44% improve in comparison with 2022,” he mentioned. HRI in its report. , which was launched on Tuesday.
Drug executions made up about 42 p.c of all identified loss of life sentences carried out worldwide final 12 months, the report added.
HRI mentioned it has confirmed drug-related executions in international locations together with Iran, Kuwait and Singapore. China treats information on the loss of life penalty as a state secret and the sentences in Vietnam and North Korea, amongst others, are secret.
“Gaps stay in details about loss of life sentences, which means that many (if not most) loss of life sentences imposed in 2023 stay unknown,” the report mentioned. “Specifically, correct figures can’t be given for China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. It’s believed that these international locations all usually impose a big variety of loss of life sentences for drug offences.”
Worldwide regulation prohibits the usage of the loss of life penalty for crimes that aren’t intentional and of “probably the most severe” nature. The United Nations has emphasised that drug offenses don’t meet this threshold.
Singapore has drawn worldwide criticism after resuming the usage of the loss of life penalty in March 2022 after a two-year hiatus through the pandemic.
About eleven executions carried out by hanging occurred that 12 months, and a minimum of sixteen individuals had been hanged by November 2023, in line with Human Rights Watch.
Amongst these executed was Saridewi Djamani, a Singaporean lady convicted of drug trafficking in 2018. She was the primary lady to be executed within the city-state in nearly twenty years.
“Singapore has reversed the COVID-19 pause on executions, sending the loss of life row equipment into full swing,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, mentioned within the group’s annual report. “The federal government’s renewed use of the loss of life penalty solely emphasised its disregard for human rights protections and the inherent cruelty of the loss of life penalty.”
Some international locations have taken steps to reform their loss of life penalty regimes lately, with Malaysia ending obligatory loss of life sentences, together with for medicine, and Pakistan eradicating the loss of life penalty from the record of punishments that may be imposed for sure violations of the Management Act on narcotics. .
But in different international locations, suspects continued to be sentenced to loss of life for drug offenses.
HRI mentioned such confirmed sentences elevated by greater than 20 p.c final 12 months in comparison with 2022. About half of those had been handed down by courts in Vietnam and 1 / 4 in Indonesia.
On the finish of 2023, some 34 international locations nonetheless retained the loss of life penalty for drug crimes.
In line with the Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore-based NGO that campaigns towards the loss of life penalty, simply over 50 individuals are on loss of life row in Singapore. All however two have been convicted of drug offences.
On February 28, Singapore hanged Bangladeshi citizen Ahmed Salim. He was the primary individual convicted of homicide to be hanged within the city-state since 2019.
“The loss of life penalty is utilized in Singapore just for probably the most severe crimes that trigger severe hurt to the sufferer or to society,” Singapore Police mentioned in a press release.
File variety of individuals executed for drug offenses in 2023 | Dying penalty information
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