GENEVA - UN experts* today condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences since the beginning of 2026 and called for an immediate halt to the country's continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.
"Under international human rights law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may impose it only for the 'most serious crimes', understood as crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing," the experts said. "Drug-related offences do not meet this threshold. These executions constitute arbitrary deprivations of life that are irreversible and must stop.
"The ultimate objective under international human rights law is the abolition of the death penalty," they said.
The experts reiterated concerns previously raised with the Government about the Misuse of Drugs Act, including the mandatory imposition of the death penalty in certain circumstances and statutory presumptions relating to possession, knowledge and trafficking.
"Mandatory death sentences that prevent an individualised assessment of circumstances of the offence and the offender are arbitrary and incompatible with the right to life. Statutory presumptions that place the burden on the accused to rebut presumed facts undermine the presumption of innocence, with particularly grave consequences when a person's life is at stake," they said.
"Capital proceedings require the highest standards of fairness and due process. No execution can be lawful where the death sentence results from proceedings that fail to meet these guarantees."
The experts highlighted the application of the death penalty to foreign nationals and older persons, reminding Singapore of its obligation to ensure equality and non-discrimination and reiterating the recommendation to establish a maximum age beyond which a person may not be sentenced to death or executed.
"Singapore's continued use of the death penalty is deeply disturbing. Seventeen people were executed in 2025, 15 of them for drug-related offences, and at least 16 more have been executed already this year," the experts said.
The experts stressed the implications of capital punishment on absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The prohibition constitutes a peremptory norm of international law from which no derogation is permitted.
"The extreme physical and psychological suffering inherent throughout the death penalty process, culminating in the deliberate taking of a person's life by the State, cannot be reconciled with the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, nor with respect for human dignity," they said.
They urged Singapore to immediately halt all executions, end the use and mandatory imposition of the death penalty for drug offences, and establish an official moratorium with a view to full abolition of the death penalty and ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Second Optional Protocol.
