Human Rights Groups Call on Nations to End Death Penalty for Drug Offenses

As UPI reported on June 22, 2009 ("Groups Want End to Drug Offense Executions"), several advocacy groups - including the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Human Rights Watch, and the International Harm Reduction Association "said in a release as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking approaches [on] June 26, Asian governments need to rethink their willingness to execute people for drug related offenses." Although 16 of the region's country's mete out the death penalty for drug law violations, human rights groups "singled out China, Indonesia, and Vietnam for particular concern, saying that they continue to execute people for drug offenses and that some countries have marked the occasion of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking with such executions." Groups also warn that the exact number of drug offenders sentenced to death is difficult to estimate, but "reports from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand indicate a high percentage of executions in those countries are imposed on those convicted of drug offenses."