The death penalty and drug policy: abolitionist perspectives at the Harm Reduction International conference
Advocacy
From April 27 to 30, 2025, the Harm Reduction International (HRI) conference in Bogotá brought together several hundred activists, researchers and human rights defenders committed to drug policies based on health, rights and justice.
Among the many discussions, some – led by member organizations of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (World Coalition) – highlighted the human rights violations associated with the application of the death penalty for drug-related offences.
Consider abolition of the death penalty as a Trojan horse for reforming punitive policies
HRI’s Giada Girelli presented worrying data on the application of the death penalty for drug-related offenses. According to HRI’s global overview, in 2024, over 615 executions were recorded for drug offenses, representing 42% of all executions worldwide. Nearly 2,350 people on death row in 19 countries for this type of crime. In HRI’s view, this alarming reality calls for an abolitionist strategy specific to drug policies, over and above general advocacy against the death penalty.
Giada pointed out that capital punishment for drug-related offences often serves to legitimize a broader narrative framework of the war on drugs, justifying increased forms of repression. As in Singapore, where the authorities claim that executions would protect society and families, this discourse helps to entrench deeply violent punitive approaches. For HRI, the death penalty is a strategic entry point for denouncing all the excesses of a global repressive system.
Acknowledging the reality of women sentenced to death for drug trafficking
Méline Szwarcberg, head of the World Coalition’s Women and Gender project, spoke on the panel “Justice for women who use drugs: global perspectives on advocacy and policy” to illustrate, through the application of the death penalty, how women are impacted by punitive drug policies.
She also stressed the importance of strengthening links between the abolitionist movement, the fight for drug policy reform, and women’s rights defenders and LGBTQ+ people, particularly those in contact with the law. Méline explained that building bridges between these spaces can open up new areas of mobilization: talking about gender discrimination can provide an entry point for discussing the abolition of the death penalty or the reform of punitive policies with actors who are usually reticent. Similarly, raising the issue of capital punishment can be a way of highlighting the urgent need for drug policy reform. These intersections create concrete opportunities for social and political transformation.
For an inclusive, decolonial and multisectoral abolitionist strategy
Discussions at the HRI conference reinforced a conviction shared by many organizations: drug policies cannot be reformed without challenging the racist, capitalist and patriarchal foundations of today’s punitive regimes. The death penalty, far from being an exception, is the most extreme expression of these logics. Its denunciation opens the way to structural, inclusive and truly transformative reforms.
