Senior Analyst in the Human Rights and Justice team at Harm Reduction International. I monitor trends on rights violations committed in the name of drug control, author reports and analyses, and coordinate advocacy with the UN and other institutional actors.

The death penalty is among the most extreme manifestations of punitive drug control. Yet, it may seem like a niche issue. In 2023, 467 drug related executions were confirmed in five countries, all in Asia and the Middle East, with some 3000 people on death row. These are shocking figures; still, they pale against the hundreds of thousands drug related deaths, and the two million people in prison for drug offences globally.

Then why should the death penalty abolition remain high on the agenda of the drug policy reform movement?

This presentation will address this question, building on findings from recent reports by Harm Reduction International on the issue, including the latest Global Overview and Decade Review on the Death Penalty for Drug Offences, and ‘Gaining Ground’. The analysis will focus on three areas:

- Data: the role that drug offences have played, and continue playing, in driving imposition of capital punishment;

- History: learnings from countries’ experiences removing or restricting use of the death penalty for drug offences; and from the limited impact of piecemeal reforms to death penalty legislation which have not addressed underlying (mis)understandings about drugs, and people engaged in the drug market;

- Narrative: how retaining death as a tool of drug control perpetuates the perception of drug crimes as exceptionally serious, deserving the most extreme of punishments; and in turn, how this obstacles progressive drug policy reform.

The presentation will also be an opportunity to hear from HR25 participants – many of which are expected to live and work in abolitionist countries - around whether and why death penalty abolition should remain high on the agenda of the drug policy reform movement.