Singapore: Independent rights experts urge immediate end to ‘unlawful use’ of death penalty

Independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Tuesday condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences this year and urged the country to end its “continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.”According to the experts – who receive no salary for their work from any UN entity and are not employed by any organization – the Government’s mandatory death penalties and statutory presumptions under the Misuse of Drugs Act amount to “arbitrary deprivations of life” that “must stop.”The UN has repeatedly called for Singapore to put an end to its use of capital punishment over the years, reiterating that the mandatory imposition of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life under international 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.”They called the abolition of the death penalty everywhere “the ultimate objective under international human rights law.”Drug offences drive executionsThe overwhelming share of executions ...