Launched in 2006 on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, ADPAN was founded in Hong Kong following a Consultative Meeting organized by Amnesty International. It answered a call from local abolitionists to organise regionally to end the death penalty across Asia and the Pacific.
In 2012, at a Consultative Meeting in Hong Kong, it was decided that ADPAN would be transformed into an independent network, and towards that end a Transition Group was formed.
In 2014, at its first General Meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) members approved ADPAN’s Constitution, and ADPAN’s first Executive Committee was elected.