This week Singapore intends to execute a 56-year-old Singaporean Malay man  convicted of trafficking approximately 50g of diamorphine (heroin) and Saridewi  Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean woman convicted of trafficking approximately 30g  of diamorphine (heroin). It has been almost twenty years since Singapore last  executed a woman. If these executions proceed, Singapore will have executed 15  people for drug offences since 30 March 2022, an average of one execution every  month.  

International law restricts the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’ understood as  intentional killing: executions for drug offences clearly fail to meet the ‘most serious  crimes’ criterion under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  (ICCPR). Singapore is among a handful of countries that have executed (China, Iran  and Saudi Arabia) or are likely to have executed (Vietnam and North Korea) individuals  for drug offences in 2022 (see reports of Amnesty International and Harm Reduction  International).  

In an interview in September 2022, Law Minister K. Shanmugam confirmed that  Singapore’s harsh policy on drugs is not resulting in the arrest of the so-called  ‘Kingpins’: “Are we only catching the small guys and not the big guys? It’s a non question because, you know, the big guys don’t come into Singapore for good  reasons”. In July 2022, eight United Nations Special Procedures experts observed that  “A disproportionate number of minority persons were being sentenced to the  mandatory death penalty in Singapore”. In sum, instead of disrupting drug cartels, as  it often claims to be the objective, the Government of Singapore deliberately retains  capital drug laws that, in practice, operate to punish low-level traffickers and couriers,  who are typically recruited from marginalised groups with intersecting vulnerabilities. 

In December 2022, 125 countries voted for a moratorium on the death penalty at the  United Nations. In June 2022, Thailand removed marijuana and hemp (that is below  0.2% THC) from its narcotics list. In April 2023, Malaysia’s parliament voted to abolish  the mandatory death penalty, a law that took effect in July 2023, including for drug  trafficking. The Government of Singapore is out of step with the global trend by  continuing with this cruel and abhorrent practice.  

The notion of national sovereignty cannot be used to undermine or negate the State’s  obligation to protect the right to life. We strongly urge the Government of Singapore to  immediately halt these scheduled executions. Instead, Singapore should pursue  effective measures to humanely address the complex problem of drug trafficking in the  country, particularly in the absence of any evidence that the death penalty is a uniquely  effective deterrent for those who commit drug offences.  

We also call on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to take concrete actions to urge  States to dispel the misguided notion that capital punishment is allowed under the UN  Drug Conventions.  

We call on the international community, particularly States who have abolished the  death penalty in law or practice, to help halt this inhumane, ineffective and  discriminatory practice in Singapore.  

Signed:  

Amnesty International  
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Malaysia  
Capital Punishment Justice Project, Australia  
Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Philippines  
Eleos Justice, Faculty of Law, Monash University, Australia 
Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), France 
Harm Reduction International, United Kingdom 
Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat (LBHM), Indonesia 
Odhikar, Bangladesh  
Transformative Justice Collective, Singapore