UN rights experts welcome Malaysia’s plan to scrap mandatory death penalty

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – UN human rights experts on Monday praised an announcement by Malaysia’s government that it will abolish the country’s mandatory death penalty.

The experts in a statement encouraged Malaysia’s parliament to take the next steps and pass the agreement into law.

The policy shift will replace the mandatory death penalty with alternative sentences concerning 11 crimes, including murder and terrorism.

The experts said it will give judges discretion to consider mitigating circumstances and commute sentences for these offenses.

“The death penalty is incompatible with fundamental tenets of human rights and dignity,” said the experts, who included UN special rapporteurs.

“We reiterate that the mandatory use of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life and is a fundamental infringement upon the independence of the judiciary and fair trial guarantees.”

They said it denies judges the possibility to consider the defendant’s circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offense and individualize the sentence.

- De facto moratorium

The experts said that with a de facto moratorium on executions already in place since 2018, the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia will send a strong signal in a region where capital punishment is too often imposed for crimes such as drug-related offenses.

According to experts, those sentenced to death, who in some cases include persons with disabilities, suffer from severe mental health deterioration due to prolonged imprisonment.

In Malaysia, most of those sentenced to death are charged with drug-related offenses.

“The majority of these offenses do not meet the threshold of the most serious crimes, meaning intentional killing, which remains the only category of offense for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law,” said the experts.

The UN experts also welcomed the government’s intention to revise the application of the death penalty for 22 other crimes.

“This measure, if passed into law, will further bolster the global trend towards universal abolition and contribute to the enhancement and development of human rights,” they said.

The experts noted that there is no draft legislation so far, and they urged the Malaysian government to introduce amending legislation without delay and commute all death sentences to alternative sentences.

The legislation will impact more than 1,300 convicts currently held on death row, many of whom belong to ethnic minorities.

The experts include Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions; Fernand de Varennes, special rapporteur on minority issues; Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, special rapporteur on the promotion of fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; and Tlaleng Mofokeng, special rapporteur on the right to health.