A tribute to M Ravi, founding member of ADPAN
We gather today, across borders, across time zones, across the many causes he devoted his life to — to honour a man who refused to look away.
On behalf of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), we offer these words not only in grief, but in deep and abiding gratitude.
Ravi was a founding member of ADPAN. That founding was not a ceremonial act. It was a declaration of conscience, one he renewed every single day through his work. ADPAN was built on the belief that the death penalty is an affront to human dignity, and Ravi embodied that belief.
He became one of the most prominent legal figures associated with human rights advocacy and constitutional challenges in Singapore. He was particularly known for representing people on death row and his work placed him at the centre of public debate on capital punishment, prosecutorial discretion, and access to justice.
To us at ADPAN, Ravi was far more than a lawyer. He was the living proof that one person, operating within a system that was often hostile to him, could still shift the moral conversation of an entire nation. Many described him as “perhaps Singapore’s most vocal anti-death penalty advocate.” We simply called him our friend and our champion.
He was not an easy man but he did not flinch when the truth demanded to be spoken. Like many who knew him, those around him saw more than one Ravi: the fiercely principled advocate; the relentless campaigner; the man who could be generous, warm, and protective; and the man who could also be difficult, combustible, and self-destructive. But this complexity was inseparable from his courage. The same intensity that sometimes made him difficult rendered him, in a courtroom fighting for a man’s life, utterly formidable.
He was a human rights lawyer because he could not accept certain outcomes as “normal”, especially when a life was on the line, and when the most marginalised were expected to disappear quietly into the machinery of the system.
That refusal to accept, that refusal to normalise, is indeed the heartbeat of ADPAN’s work. And Ravi gave it a face and a voice.
His advocacy and challenge to the mandatory death sentence was featured in a documentary film. He received recognition from Richard Branson, Amnesty International, the International Bar Association, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and Human Rights Watch. In 2023, the International Bar Association recognised him for his “extraordinary dedication to defending human rights and advocating for the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the abolition of the death penalty in the Republic of Singapore.”
But accolades were never what drove him. What drove him was the knowledge that behind every case file was a human being — frightened, forgotten, often poor, often from communities that the powerful would rather not see. He saw them and stood beside them. He extended empathy and humanity to the families of those on death row, offering solace to people worn down by institutional judgement and shame.
His work extended beyond capital punishment. Ravi was among the lawyers who took on cases involving LGBT persons and equality-related issues at a time when doing so came with professional and social costs. Many of those efforts were not widely understood or appreciated, but they mattered to the people who needed counsel willing to stand beside them.
He paid enormous personal costs for his convictions. He faced suspension, disciplinary proceedings, and ultimately disbarment. Despite these challenges, he continued contributing to the legal community and abolitionist movement through speeches, seminars, and consultations. Even stripped of his robes, he remained a lawyer at heart, because lawyering, for Ravi, was never just a profession. It was a calling.
Human Rights Watch described Ravi’s work as having made “Singapore a better, more humane place.” We believe this is true. And we believe his legacy will continue to make it so, through every activist he inspired, every family he gave hope to, and every life that was spared in part because of his relentless advocacy.
Ravi, you gave us your fire. We will carry it forward.
On behalf of ADPAN — our networks across Asia, our member organisations, and every individual who believes that no state should have the power to take a human life, we say: thank you. Thank you for never backing down. Thank you for showing us what it looks like to fight for the voiceless, at great personal cost, without flinching.
Rest now, dear friend. The work continues, because you showed us how.
