The International Harm Reduction Association has published a new report today to mark International Human Rights Day. The report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: A Violation of International Human Rights Law (1), calls for an end to the use of the death penalty for drug offences.
The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) is a leading international NGO promoting policies and practices that reduce drug-related harms. Drug-related harms do not only include an increased vulnerability to HIV and hepatitis C infection, but also the effects of repressive law enforcement activities that result in human right abuses against drug users.
133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Of the 64 countries that retain capital punishment, half apply the death penalty to drug-related offences (2), the majority of these being in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific regions. In many of these countries the death penalty may be applied to people convicted for possession of illicit drugs, not only to those convicted for trafficking offences. In some countries, drug offenders comprise a significant proportion of executions each year.
In Malaysia, for example, between July 2004 and July 2005, 36 of the 52 executions carried out were for drug trafficking. Over recent years, the Chinese authorities have marked the UN’s international anti-drug day by executing people for drug-related offences. In 2001, over fifty people were publicly executed for drug-related crimes at mass rallies, at least one of which was broadcast on state television (3). And in Iran, second only to China in terms of numbers of executions, five people were hanged for drug trafficking and possession of arms on Wednesday last week (5 December 2007) (4).
While many of these deaths go unnoticed in international media, one case that has received significant attention worldwide concerns nine Australian nationals who are currently being held on death row in Bali (Indonesia) having been convicted of drug trafficking. Several of the ‘Bali nine’ have exhausted almost all routes of appeal and may face the firing squad soon (5).
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the main UN human rights treaties, the use of capital punishment, while not prohibited, is restricted in several ways. One of the key restrictions is that the death penalty may only be applied for the “most serious crimes”. Both the UN Human Rights Committee (which monitors and interprets the terms of the ICCPR) and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions have stated that drug offences do not constitute “most serious crimes” under the ICCPR, and that executions for such offences are therefore in violation of international human rights law.
While the number of countries practicing capital punishment has steadily decreased over the past twenty years, the IHRA report highlights the fact that the number of death penalty states expanding the scope of capital punishment to include drug offences has steadily increased.
Rick Lines, Senior Policy Advisor for IHRA and author of the report, said:
“The UN human rights system has stated definitively that drug-related crimes do not constitute death penalty offences. Executions for drug offences therefore violate international human rights law, and the international community must bring pressure to bear upon states to end this illegal practice.
“While progress towards the abolition of capital punishment is a significant success of the human rights movement, the expansion of capital punishment for drug offences during that same period can only be seen as a dramatic failure.”
Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of IHRA, said:
“Capital punishment for drug offences is but one illustration of how human rights have been sacrificed in the name of the ‘war on drugs’. Unfortunately, the death penalty is not the only example of such abuses worldwide. Repressive law enforcement practices, the denial of health services to drug users and the spread of HIV infection among people who inject drugs, due to lack of access to harm reduction programmes, are far too common in many countries across the globe.”
ENDS
Notes to eds
(1) The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: A Violation of International Human Rights Law by Rick Lines, is published by IHRA (ISBN 978-0-9557754-0-6) and can be viewed in its entirety at www.ihra.net from 10 December 2007.
(2) In 2001, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice identified Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States (federal law), Uzbekistan and Viet Nam as those countries with capital punishment for drug crimes. Since the UN report was published, the Philippines has abolished the death penalty and Amnesty International has judged Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar and Sri Lanka to be abolitionist in practice. However, the above list does not include Yemen and Laos, both of which have capital punishment for drug offences.
(3) China marked the UN’s International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking (26 June) by executing drug offenders in 2001 as described above. In 2002, the day was marked by 64 public executions in rallies across the country, the largest of which took place in the south-western city of Chongqing, where 24 people were shot. A UN human rights monitor reported ‘dozens’ of people being executed to mark the day in 2004 and Amnesty International recorded 55 executions for drug offences over a 2-week period running up to 26 June 2005.
(4) Four executions were carried out in Bam and the other in the city of Baft, raising to 279 the number of people executed so far this year, according to an AFP count from the media and witnesses. Source: AFP (5/12/07) http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gafm9Q01yhgtShlDgZ1sd1IYfR
5) See ABC news network: ‘Court rejects Bali nine death penalty challenge’ (Tuesday 30 October 2007) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/30/2076179.htm
For more information please contact Ruth Goldsmith in the DrugScope Press Office on 020 7940 7517 (07736 895563 out of hours) or at press@drugscope.org.uk
