Execution for drug-related offence is a comment posted on Le Président de la République : « j’ai toujours été pour la peine de mort »

European countries on Wednesday 24 February 2010 stepped up pressure for a global halt to the death penalty, as opponents of capital punishment hailed the growing number of countries scrapping or suspending executions. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on countries that still have the death penalty to establish a moratorium.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero (of Spain), the current President of  the European Union: “Spain would set up an international commission made up of eminent people later this year to press for a global moratorium on the death penalty by 2015, as a preliminary step to total abolition." 

Referring to the US, Luxembourg''''s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said: "You can be a strong country, even the most important one on the planet, but the death penalty must disappear. Academics call for the review of policy that capital punishment deters crime."

Execution for drug-related offences: Some countries that retain the death penalty for murder and other violent crimes do not execute offenders for drug-related crimes. The following is a list of countries that currently have statutory provisions for the death penalty for drug-related offences: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, People’s Republic of China, Republic of China, Egypt, Indonesia,  Iran, Iraq,  Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia,  Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, India,  United States (Although Federal Law provides the death penalty for certain drug offences, no one is on death row for such offences), Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

Information about the death penalty in Asia, supporting the campaign to end executions in the region. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) call upon governments in Asia to cease applying the death penalty for drug-related offences. Sixteen countries in Asia apply the death penalty for drug-related offences. As many countries in the region do not make information on the death penalty available, it is impossible to calculate exactly how many drug-related death sentences are imposed. Reports from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, indicate that a high proportion of death sentences are imposed upon those convicted of drug offences.

Despite the executions in Asia, there is no clear evidence of a decline in drug-trafficking that could be attributed to the threat or use of the death penalty. There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters serious crime in general more effectively than other punishments. Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. Such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis.

Death sentences are often handed down after unfair legal processes, a problem made worse by laws, policies or practices regulating drug offences in some Asian countries. Mandatory death sentences are applied for certain drug offences in Brunei, India, Laos, Singapore and Malaysia, leaving a judge with no discretion over the sentence for defendants found guilty.

Mandatory death sentences violate international standards on fair trials.  Individualized sentencing is required to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and the arbitrary deprivation of life. Singapore, which has one of the highest per capita execution rates in the world, as well as Malaysia, continue to hand down death sentences to individuals alleged to be drug traffickers after trials that presume guilt, and in which death sentences are mandatory. Confessions that have been coerced sometimes form the basis of guilty verdicts, death sentences and executions. Competent legal assistance is unavailable to many defendants, including defendants facing drugs-related charges, leaving many with little capacity to mount a defense at any stage of the proceedings.

Draconian penalties for drug offences, including the death penalty, hinder public health programmes that reduce the harm drugs may cause to individual drug users, their loved ones, communities and states. China, Malaysia and Viet Nam have recently stepped up their harm reduction programmes to reduce HIV, hepatitis C and other drug-related health and social harms. However, excessive punishments and overly repressive drug law enforcement have been shown time and again to drive target groups away from such services.

The death penalty therefore not only violates the right to life of those condemned, but is actually counterproductive to efforts to reduce the harm caused by drugs.