21 Oct 2016
Madam Chair,
Thank you for giving me the floor. My delegation thanks the Special Rapporteur Madam Agnes Callamard for her presentation. The lawful imposition of the death penalty, based on a commitment to the rule of law and resting on a strong and independent judiciary, is a fundamentally different issue from extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Singapore strongly condemns extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which constitute gross violations of human rights. It is thus unfortunate that the report by Madam Callamard’s predecessor, Mr Christof Heyns, contains several flawed assertions. We are addressing the specific remarks by Mr Heyns in respect of the death penalty. In the interest of time, we reserve our position in respect of his remarks on other issues.
2 First, in his report, Mr Heyns espouses the view that international law requires the progressive abolition of the death penalty. My delegation would like to point out that there are no major international treaties that proscribe the imposition of the death penalty. Moreover, there is no international consensus on the issue of capital punishment, including the mandatory death penalty. Capital punishment, when it is imposed according to the due process of law, remains legal under international law.
3 Second, Mr Heyns claims that “the category of most serious crimes is now understood to cover at most intentional killing - murder.” Mr Heyns further asserts that the dealth penalty for drug offences is a “flagrant violation of international law” as drug offences do not meet the “most serious” crimes threshold. My delegation would like to stress that what constitutes most serious crimes is a matter for individual States to decide, based on their national circumstances. This must be examined contextually in terms of the crime’s impact on the immediate and third party victims, as well as on society at large. Singapore regards drug trafficking as a most serious crime. Drugs have a devastating impact on the individuals who take them, their families and society. Globally, there were over 207,000 drug-related deaths in 2014. In our view, capital punishment for drug-related offences has been a key element in keeping Singapore drug free and keeping Singapore safe.
Madam Chair,
4 We hope that future reports of the Special Rapporteur will not continue to make such fallacious assertions. We trust that Madam Callamard will discharge her duties with the utmost professionalism, to more effectively address this very important issue. Thank you.
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