According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, at least 170 countries out of the 193 UN members do not use the death penalty as a punishment or have introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice. Harm Reduction International (HRI) indicated that 35 countries and territories retain the death penalty for drug offences in law. In 2022, 285 people were executed worldwide for drug-related offences (including China, Vietnam, and North Korea). International bodies have made it clear that there is no place for the death penalty to exist in the name of justice and encourages the universal abolition of capital punishment.
In 2022, Papua New Guinea, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and Zambia abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
Malaysia
While Singapore picked up the pace of executions in 2022, the building public pressure against capital punishment in Malaysia has led the government to repeal the mandatory death penalty for 12 offences, saving 1,300 prisoners on death row from being executed.
“With this decision, Malaysia sends a strong signal supporting the abolition of the death penalty in a region where capital punishment is too often imposed for a broad range of crimes such as drug related offenses” experts said. “The majority of these offences do not meet the threshold of the most serious crimes, meaning those of extreme gravity involving intentional killing, which remains the only category of offense for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law,” – OHCHR
Malaysia Repeals Mandatory Death Penalty
Abolish Death Penalty – Amnesty Malaysia
UN experts hail parliamentary decision to end mandatory death penalty
Malaysian Government Pledges to End Mandatory Death Penalty
Campaigns in Malaysia against the execution of individuals in Singapore:
Clemency Petition For Nagaenthran
Malaysia taking positive steps, Singapore continuing with ‘execution barrage’, rights group says
Malaysians stage protest to stop execution of Nagaenthran
Papua New Guinea
In January 2022, Papua New Guinea abolished capital punishment for all offences. Mentioning its unavailability of any humane means to carry out executions with also citing religious values resulted in the death penalty no longer being part of their criminal justice system.
Papua New Guinea Abolishes the Death Penalty
Kazakhstan
“On September 23, 2020, in conjunction with the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that the country had signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits signatory nations to abolish the death penalty. The action was taken as a step “to fulfill a fundamental right to life and human dignity,” Tokayev said.
Kazakhstan Signs Global Treaty to Abolish Death Penalty
Mongolia
On 1 July 2017, Mongolia became the 105th country to put an end to the inhuman practice of the death penalty.
“As other countries in the Asia Pacific region continue to execute or even contemplate reinstating the death penalty, in clear violation of their international law obligations, Mongolia’s journey over the past decade is not only illustrative of the overwhelming global trend in favour of the abolition of the death penalty, but also of the critical importance that political leadership plays in driving human rights change.”
Mongolia: Historic vote abolishes death penalty
Mongolia: death penalty confined to history as new Criminal Code comes into effect