DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG OFFENCES: GLOBAL OVERVIEW 2021

March 21, 2022:

In 2021, 35 countries retain the death penalty for a range of drug offences, according to “The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2021” Report (Harm Reduction International).
Civil society had grounds for optimism at the beginning of the year, thanks to some promising developments in 2020: in Singapore, no executions took place for the first time since 2013; and in Saudi Arabia, Prince Salman declared a moratorium on drug-related executions at the beginning of 2020. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Biden-Harris victory in the 2020 elections raised hopes for new legislation abolishing the federal death penalty in the US.
At the end of 2021, the situation appears more uncertain. While no executions were reported in Saudi Arabia and Singapore in 2021, a sudden increase in executions was noted in Iran. This sharp reversal of the 2018-2020 trend, together with unexpected news of death sentences in low application countries, resulted in a rise of both drug-related sentences and executions in 2021.
As of December 2021, Harm Reduction International recorded at least 131 executions for drug offences globally, a 336% increase from 2020. It is imperative to note that this number is likely to represent only a fraction of all drug-related executions carried out globally.
HRI research confirmed that drug-related executions took place in China and Iran, and indicates that drug-related executions were likely to have taken place in North Korea and Vietnam.
China and Iran are among the most opaque when it comes to data on their use of the death penalty. In China, information on the use of the death penalty is classified as a state secret; therefore, this report is unable to provide a verified figure for executions. In Iran, where at least 131 drug-related executions took place, civil society faces significant obstacles in reporting and verifying executions. The countries where executions for drug offences were likely to have taken place are North Korea, a closed dictatorship on which information is virtually impossible to obtain, and Vietnam, which also classifies the use of capital punishment as a state secret.
In 2021 there was an 11 percent increase in known death sentences for drug offences from the previous year. A minimum of 237 death sentences for drug crimes were reported in at least 16 countries. No drug-related executions were carried out in Saudi Arabia, for the first year in over a decade. No one was executed in Singapore for the second consecutive year and in Indonesia for the fifth consecutive year. At least 3000 people are believed to be on death row for drug offences.  After a year-long hiatus, drug-related death sentences were confirmed in Bangladesh (3), Egypt (11) and Kuwait (1). Death sentences for drug offences were also reported for the first time since 2018 in the United Arab Emirates (1), and in Iraq (2).
In this scenario, it emerges that the group of countries actively resorting to capital punishment as a central tool of drug control is shrinking, but is also more and more characterised by opacity and secrecy, if not outright censorship. Transparency and monitoring will thus be key challenges for institutional as well as civil society actors working towards death penalty abolition.