More than 615 people were executed for drug-related offences last year, according to Harm Reduction International (HRI). There were also almost 380 death sentences imposed, with more than 2,300 people currently on death row for drug offences worldwide.
Thirty-four countries still retain the death penalty for drug-related offences, says The death penalty for drug offences: global overview 2024. After some ‘cautious optimism’ in the years between 2018 and 2020 there has been a steady increase in executions since 2021, the document states, with the trend reaching ‘crisis levels’ in 2024 – ‘the deadliest year on record since 2015’.
Known executions were up by 32 per cent from 2023’s figure of 467, and by ‘a staggering’ 1,950 per cent from 2020. The figure of 615 known executions, however, does not include the ‘hundreds – if not thousands’ carried out in countries like China, North Korea and Vietnam, where state censorship means there is little chance of realistically establishing how many people have been killed.
Iran was responsible for just under 80 per cent of all known drug-related executions worldwide – at 485 – while the biggest increase was in Saudi Arabia, where 122 people were executed, up from just 2 in 2023. The increase signalled a ‘renewed commitment to this barbaric practice as a tool of drug control’, says the report, and ‘far from being sanctioned for its actions’ Saudi Arabia was then awarded with hosting the 2034 World Cup. Singapore also saw eight people hanged for drug trafficking between August and November 2024 alone, the document points out.
At least 18 of the people executed in 2024 were women, while 136 were foreign nationals. ‘The finding on foreign nationals is a stark reminder of the overrepresentation of this group among people sentenced to death and executed for drug offences, driven both by marginalisation and the unique barriers of navigating foreign criminal legal systems,’ the report states.
Report available here