Wild flaws in judicial systems leading to death sentences: Iraq and Singapore
Report
Following Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2025, the World Coalition examines the death penalty in Iraq and Singapore, highlighting how judicial flaws undermine individuals’ fundamental rights.
Iraq
“Iraq has long had one of the highest rates of executions in the world. About 8,000 prisoners, most charged with terrorism offenses, are on death row in Iraq. Authorities in 2024 carried out the executions despite well-documented flaws in Iraq’s judicial system that deny defendants’ right to due process and a fair trial and rely on confessions obtained through torture” states the 2025 World Report before raising the issue of mass executions.
“On December 25, 2023, Iraqi authorities executed thirteen men in Nasiriyah prison, the first mass execution since 21 men were executed on November 16, 2020. Multiple mass executions occurred in 2024, including the execution of 13 people on April 22. The Iraqi government does not provide public figures on executions.”
The reports also highlights that Iraqi authorities “undertook executions without regard for the basic rights of those facing the death penalty, including executions carried out without prior notice and not allowing prisoners to call their families or lawyers before their executions.”
As for the Kurdistan Region, where the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has maintained a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2008 “except in very few cases which were considered essential” according to a KRG spokesperson, 466 people are held in prison with pending death sentences, according to the KRG Directorate of Corrections.
Singapore
Human Right Wath alerts on the continued use of the death penalty in Singapore as “The home minister intensified the crackdown on anti-death penalty activists, long targets of government harassment and intimidation”. In particular, “Singapore maintains its use for a range of crimes, including drug-related offenses. This year, the government issued execution notices to individuals convicted of drug-related offenses, even as their appeals were pending, and introduced legislation that further impedes the rights of prisoners in capital cases.
In May, Singapore Home Minister K. Shanmugam announced the Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases Act (PACC)—a law that further curtails fair trial and due process rights of prisoners in capital cases—would come into effect. Enacted in June, the PACC severely limits prisoners’ ability to appeal their convictions and contravenes the 1984 UN Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty.”
Human Rights Watch also notes thatthe Singaporean government “intensified its efforts to target and silence human rights defenders under the guise of protecting its judicial system”. For instance,on May 8, “the home minister condemned prominent anti-death penalty activists, publicly naming them in a ministerial address and accusing them of falsely portraying the criminal justice system as “stacked against drug traffickers.” All those named had already been subjected to orders under the POFMA for their activism”.
